The focus of this well-intentioned hokum-fest, which opened Monday at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre, is rather the "race music" that paved the way for the King of Rock 'n' Roll and his progeny. Set in the 1950s in the city that put Elvis on the map, Memphis (?? out of four) traces the star-crossed creative and romantic partnership between a young white man who loves rhythm & blues and a black woman who loves to sing it.

For those unaware of the problems this relationship could pose in the Jim Crow South, sources of racial tension are helpfully reinforced.

The white folks all seem to have wandered in out of an early episode of The Lawrence Welk Show. The black guys and gals can typically be found either swinging around a nightclub or whooping it up in church.

Still, our intrepid hero, an illiterate mama's boy named Huey Newton, falls for Felicia Farrell, the siren-voiced sister of a club owner, and woos her by landing a job as a DJ at a mainstream radio station. Though the manager is dubious about Huey's choices — a typical tune is titled Everybody Wants to Be Black on a Saturday Night— the ratings go through the roof. Before long, Huey has a popular local television show, and Felicia has a shot at a big-time record deal.

Storm clouds loom, though, and chasing them, Memphis veers from cloying earnestness to obvious satire.

Part of the problem is that the leads seem incompatible for reasons having nothing to do with skin color. It's tough to see how Montego Glover's elegant Felicia could be attracted to Chad Kimball's buffoonish Huey, who suggests a cross between an aging stand-up comic and a parody of George W. Bush in his frat-boy heyday.

Glover gives Felicia an endearing sweetness and sings powerfully. But like her castmates, she's saddled with music and lyrics (the latter co-written by Bryan and DiPietro) that at best play like retreads of old R&B hits. Bryan, a founding member of Bon Jovi, also invests some songs with power-ballad melodrama.

Wrapping one such number, Colored Woman, Glover holds a note so long that you half expect Simon Cowell to leap out of the audience, screaming, "Enough!"

The wasted talent also includes the robust-voiced James Monroe Iglehart, cast as Huey's black buddy, and an ensemble of charismatic young dancers who lend added exuberance to Sergio Trujillo's kinetic choreography.

Let's hope they all have equal opportunity to find gigs more deserving of their gifts.

Enlarge By Joan Marcus Where racial tension and music meet: J. Bernard Calloway and Montego Glover in the story set in Memphis in the 1950s.