"Return to the Forbidden Planet" is a one-joke show.

The gimmick behind Bob Carton's 1989 London pastiche (little known in the States) is that he and a shipful of collaborators have actors speaking well-known Shakespearean verse and then breaking out into pop songs.

One moment you're hearing, "What light in yonder window breaks?" The next minute finds you grooving to "Teenager in Love" or "Great Balls of Fire" or "All Shook Up." If you think this sort of incongruity is funny, then by all means, rush to Super Summer Theatre/Stage Door Entertainment's production at Spring Mountain Ranch.

The script pokes fun at the 1956 film "Forbidden Planet' (as if that B-movie needed making fun of) and Shakespeare's "The Tempest." It makes reference to everything from "Hamlet" to "Star Trek."

The Bard's kindly but ill-tempered wizard Prospero (Brian Scott) is here a mad scientist who forces a spaceship to land on the uncharted planet D'Illyria. Lots of action ensues as the ship's captain (Simon Relph) becomes captivated by Prospero's daughter (Laura Savage), and Prospero's wife (Kelli Andino) tries to save everyone from her husband's sorcery.

The writers don't do much with the riches Shakespeare has given them. Caliban, for instance, is an intriguingly complicated half-man, half-beast in "The Tempest"; here, he's simply a lovesick teenager named Cookie. Surely a little more cleverness is in order.

Director/choreographer Terrence Williams has rounded up a decent cast. Relph is a likably dominating force. He sings with effortless assurance and power, and has the sort of easy, nonthreatening sensuality that should have pre-adolescent girls swooning. There isn't a mediocre voice in the bunch and that makes nearly all the numbers worth listening to.

Trouble is, acting and movement skills are often wanting. Andino, for example, exhibits Tina Turner-belting power as the Science Officer. But she's unable to project sensuality. She often seems to be faking passion.

Tony Carter vocalizes well as the fairy Aril -- here made into an inline skating robot -- but his performance is so generic that we can't figure out who he is. Scott as Prospero comes across stale and overrehearsed.

Williams' choreography is monotonous '60s imitation funk. You get tired of the "Hullabaloo" dancing before the first number is over. Steve Paladie's spaceship deck set, though, is enjoyably detailed.

You're always aware that you're watching a second-rate version of "The Rocky Horror Show" -- and that was third-rate to begin with. But for some, the show's mediocrity is a part of its charm.

When an actor said goodbye to the audience with the line, "Live well and Prospero," half the audience laughed hysterically while some of us, to put it mildly, were not amused.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.