Most people know Bus Stop as Marilyn Monroe's semi-dramatic film vehicle based on the play. Set in a Kansas diner in the middle of the night in a snowstorm, the play animates a collection of unwilling nighthawks, their transience halted just long enough to air out their varied loves and losses. Among the bus riders are a drunken professor in a hurry to cross the state line, and a wild cowboy who lassoed a nightclub chanteuse with plans to install her as his wife on a Montana ranch. Bus driver Carl joins in, too, a rover with designs on the diner's doyenne, Grace. It's generally a pleasant enough time, and a director who can walk the balance between comic quirkiness and naturalism will always do right by Inge.

Unfortunately, this time, Tom Quinn isn't that director. Most of his cast is tuned to the key of high Tennessee Williams, except when they're under-emoting. All resemblance between Monroe's and Joy Orlemann's Cherie is purely coincidental, and mostly related to her sloppy platinum-blond wig. Jessica Rosalie Foley's innocent waitress Elma Duckworth seems to be taking her cues from a deranged 7-year-old, flapping her arms, contorting herself, and declaiming in a voice that signifies a developmental delay instead of mere youthfulness.

Tim Moyer, as pedophiliac prof Dr. Gerald Lyman, manages to muddle through mostly unscathed, and Kristopher Yoder's Carl is perhaps the sole actor onstage playing a human being instead of a cartoon. Still, if you're going to have cartoons up there, at least Howie Brown's Li'l Abner-knockoff Bo Decker has the right idea. He keeps the action active, despite the attempts of Joseph Jude Zito's Sheriff Will Masters and Orlemann to subdue him by the sheer power of their tranquilized efforts.

Making matters worse, when Cherie, Dr. Lyman and Elma perform a brief floor show, Quinn has them sing and recite directly at the audience. At least Adam Riggar's set is authentic, its diner stools and substantial mid-century appliances grounding the production with some much-needed solidity, should anyone care to turn around and pretend they're in a classic American play.