The price of hate is steep, and in White Noise, this self-described "cautionary musical" shows us that hatred can be spread by anyone, directly and indirectly. And how much hatred do you have to cause to get famous in this twisted American Dream morality play?

The show is making its pre-Broadway tryout in New Orleans at Le Petit Theatre in the French Quarter. White Noise is the first musical production to take advantage of Louisiana's new Live Performance Tax Credit—giving producers major tax breaks and incentives to tryout musicals and plays in Louisiana on par with similar perks film companies have been taking advantage of since 2005.

White Noise premiered at the 2006 New York Music Theatre Festival and gained plenty of buzz from audiences and critics alike for its frank depiction of bigotry and catchy music. This show is cautionary in that if they should ever get a cast recording, you'd be scared to play it out loud due to the graphic lyrics and dialogue. The show's conceivers took their cues from the real life story of the Gaede twins—who sing folk-rock hate songs, and expanded upon it to imagine a world where they can reach a much wider audience.

This latest, revised incarnation is written by bookwriter Matte O'Brien and composers/lyricists Steven and Robert Morris, Joe Shane and Joe Drymala, plus individual song contributions from Legally Blonde composer Laurence O'Keefe and Edges team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, plus Sharon Vaughn. The coterie of writers has come up with a mostly beguiling folk, rock, pop and R&B score that actually sounds like radio-worthy music at first listen and a daring book that will polarize audiences.

MacKenzie Mauzy is mesmerizing supremacist singer Eva Siller. She's dangerous and sexy, with a contemporary belt and explosive presence on stage, easily walking away with the audience in her hands.

As cool and hateful as Eva is, her sister Kady is played with tenderness and heart by Patti Murin. Kady blithely follows her sister, and vocally they naturally harmonize well together. Murin softens Mauzy's harsh edges. Because the show stays so serious, Kady's love plot is a lighter moment in a show that needs all the lighter moments it can get.

According to producer and co-director Mitchell Maxwell, White Noise is aiming for Broadway as early as this fall. It may have what it takes to make it, but I think it definitely needs a little polishing. The show has plenty going for it: a terrific and memorable contemporary score, racy and riveting subject matter, and a top notch performance by leading actress MacKenzie Mauzy that has audiences talking. Where it missteps greatly is in the static direction, staging and at times out-of-place choreography. The book and score, like most shows trying out, could use some clarification here, some tightening there, and even expanding upon some parts further (the show runs 2 hours and 40 minutes with an intermission). It's nearly there in terms of a good, finished product, but definitely needs a strong, guiding and visionary hand to bring this show to wider audiences.

I won't pretend that I was unaware of Michael Riedel's July 10 article in the New York Post about White Noise when I saw this show. He describes the rift between the production staff and actors and lead producer/director Mitchell Maxwell. It seems Maxwell has been banned from the theater, and the staff of the Omni Hotel aren't particularly fond of him either. But it's plainly evident Maxwell isn't the right person for this show. Did Hal Prince ever fire himself from a show?

It's never an encouraging sign when production credits are missing from your program. This production has no credited scenic designer, which we were told in an earlier statement would be scenic designer Beowulf Boritt, for the Broadway engagement only. Mr. Boritt's contributions are greatly needed to help make this show make sense.

I'm sure someone had to design this show: an all-black set full with a simple second story platform upstage; visible lighting equipment, and some rolling stair units to get the actors off the platform and onto the stage. The occasional rolling chair or table will make do in this utterly minimal (read: Cheap) Jersey Boys knockoff set. To paraphrase Gerard Alessandrini: Is this that new Des McAnuff disease?

As of now, it's a slightly confusing concept show trapped in a black box with rock concert lighting (by Jason Lyons) that would make any touring rock band proud. Add to it a few off-the-rack costumes by David Woolard and frightening wigs (apologies to the ensemble ladies), and you have a show that needs some re-thinking before it dares to make the reported $6 million leap to the Main Stem.

White Noise opens with a song about the day the Kady and Eva Siller were carefully taught to hate. They sing about their father, who's "a good man tryin' and he's always workin' day and night at the Thompson lumber yard." Dad was laid off and replaced by lower paid Mexican workers in the family's Oregon hometown, leading to his eventual suicide. "Good Man Tryin'" is an unforgettable opening song that gently lulls the audience into the shocking, intense and at times repulsive world of intolerance and hate still to come.

We segue into a minor key, up tempo number (think Evanescence or No Doubt) called "Mondays Suck." The girls are glammed up (apologies to the talented Patti Murin and her unfortunate white leggings) and we're flashed forward to the height of their fame, performing the hit "Mondays Suck" complete with multi-ethnic backup dancers.

Sleazeball agent Rick Kent (Brandon Williams) discovers the Sillers and helps morph these folk-singing hate spewers into teenage pop sensations, while enlisting the help of composer and singer Kurt (David Nathan Perlow) to write more mainstream songs for the girls. Eva's boyfriend and the girls' guitarist Duke (Patrick Murney) begrudgingly plays along, unhappy with Rick's control and need to tone down the racist and bigoted messages in the girls' songs. By "coding" the lyrics to remove overt references to Jews, African Americans and Hispanics, they might have a chance to score it big, and Rick insists that their followers will tune into the message.

At this point in act one, an interesting moment occurs: the group gets to work finding a code for "N****rs Suck," the song we just heard twenty minutes earlier as "Mondays Suck."

Rick's other act includes managing rap stars Tyler (Rodney Hicks) and brother Dion (Antwayn Hopper), who perform under the name Blood Brothers. Their message is equally hateful, as their hit song "N.G.S."—"N****r gonna shoot the white boy" blasts across the airwaves. Rick's main goal appears to be success at any cost, and he's not afraid of a controversial act to stir up attention (and money) his way. He sends his newest group, now called White Noise, out on tour and that includes stops in clubs, and a preschool for some carefully planned image-building. They sing "Do the Laundry" in which you're told to "put the whites over here and the colors over there. Before it's too late, separate and do the laundry." Get them while they're young.

Then comes the inevitable quick rise to the "Hall of Fame," as Dion and Tyler sing the R&B fused number, a scene/song montage where White Noise meets the press, including having to interact with a very gay talk-show host and a black reporter, and an uncomfortable scene where an interviewer ambushes them with old footage of their song "Tragic" when it wasn't about fitting in with the good crowd, but about the tragedy of being Jewish. The band must back-peddle and distort to defend themselves.

Intertwined in the story is a small love plot between Kady and Kurt, with an act two number called "Fireworks" that starts too late to develop any real sympathy for these characters, and revelations about Blood Brothers Dion and Tyler, whose storyline gets adequate development and attention in the otherwise strong second act book.

To combat the band's now public racist overtones, White Noise will open for Blood Brothers in concert to prove the rumors false.

Please skip the next paragraph if you do not wish to know the show's plot twists!

The musical takes an inevitable tragic turn—a fight breaks out and Dion dies mercilessly at the hands of supremacist Duke. White Noise takes the stage and reveals their true racist message in "White Invention"—which makes Jimmy Early's breakdown in Dreamgirls look like kid stuff. Kady is shot down mid-performance, and the real fame-making begins.

The lack of actual set or projections makes establishing some scenes, particularly the first two numbers in the show, problematic and deliberately confusing. Co-director and choreographer Donald Byrd's Alvin Ailey/Jack Cole meets hip hop steps often detract from the songs, and seem out of place and unnecessary for such a small ensemble, yet half the time Eva and Kady sing facing front, arms out—hardly inspired choices.

White Noise seems seems to be confused: is it a rock concert, or a traditional book musical? Another point of mystery for me is that most of the music is material from the girl's repertoire. Aside from a cacophonous canon in act one called "Rick's Utopia"—which is too densely packed with everyone singing to actually hear what anyone's saying (noise?), the musical does not have many internalized moments until midway through the second act. That's too late to decide to get into the character's heads in song.

There's a lot of rich, dramatic material that the writers still can (and need to) explore. Mom (the underutilized Nancy Anderson) and Dad (Andrew McGinn) only exist in echo chamber flashbacks with creepy leitmotif underscoring. One too many flashbacks later, Nancy Anderson finally gets her moment in "I Know Blue," but it's too late for her to start singing—even though it's a beautiful number. There is virtually no interaction between Mom, Dad and the girls. Why isn't the family's storyline explored further?

Rick, despite Brandon Williams efforts, comes across as very one dimensional. He's a stock character, a used car salesmen with no qualms. There's little of the desperation, nerve or showmanship evident in this all too important character. He narrates too much and but tells us too little.

Patrick Murney conveys Duke's supremacist machismo with the gravity and intensity required. David Nathan Perlow's Kurt is winning, with his boyish charm—Kady quickly falls for him, with realistic chemistry between Perlow and Murin. Perlow's vocals are clear and he's a good foil for Murin's Kady. Antwayn Hopper and Rodney Hicks rap with ease, and get the show's best dance moves in "Hip Hop Country." Less can be said about the ensemble, forced to do-si-do in hackneyed show-tune fashion that drags this number down.

Hicks gets a moving second act monologue, warning us that "things can get messy when talking about race." And the show ends with Mauzy declaring that she is who she is: American, and proud. White Noise will leave audiences abuzz, if they can sit through shocking language and a musical where every character is culpable in hatred. I fully expected walk-outs at intermission, and was shocked to find minimal evidence of it.

White Noise can teach a real message about hatred and racism, one that's not particularly sugar-coated. You won't find anyone from Washington Heights romanticizing about piraguas, or really any heroes among the animals on stage. It's still a tough sell, and maybe Mitchell Maxwell is a bit like the character Rick in the success at all costs thinking, but if this show ever makes it back to New York, it will get people talking. But, how many would actually listen?

White Noise: A Cautionary Musical, presented by Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, 616 St. Peter Street, New Orleans, LA. Performance Schedule: July 9-26, 2009, Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets available at the Le Petit Theatre Box Office, by phone at (504) 522-2081 or online at www.lepetittheatre.com/ Ticket prices: $40-60, with discounts for seniors and educators starting at $20.

- Paul Broussard