\'Bumbug\' at the Clurman Theater

He works in a deli. She wants to be a writer like Jhumpa Lahiri. He's an immigrant from Mumbai. She's what he calls an ABCD - American-born confused desi (or Indian). When they meet, sparks don't fly. Still, “Bumbug the Musical” would have us believe they're in love.

The romantic plot is just one of many undercooked ingredients in this sung-through rock adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” set among South Asians in New York. The show's creators - book and lyrics by Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri; music by Mr. Chakrabarti - have come up with a gallery of types, given them songs to sing, and somehow hoped that it would all add up to a musical.

Meet the deli worker, Scroogewala (Andrew Ramcharan Guilarte), who finds New York hard and Christmas an affront; and that ABCD, Sunita (Lipica Shah), whose parents want her to be a doctor and marry a rich man. Those parents (Debargo Sanyal and Falu) are immigrants, too. They have sacrificed to give their daughter a better life, and aren't shy about reminding her. There's also a chorus of bubbly Americans dressed like rejects from “Rent,” and the American angel (Adrienne C. Moore) who helps Scroogewala peer into the past, present and future.

Is the “B” in “Bumbug” meant to stand for Bollywood? The show seems more rooted in modern Broadway than Hindi cinema. The score has hints of India - a classical-type riff in a number delivered by Sunita's mother; a touch of movie pizazz in “I Wish She Were More Like Meena Kumari” - but mostly the music is straight-ahead theater rock, pleasant but undistinguished.

And it needs to do more: in a sung-through show the songs have to be the building blocks of character. They can't just rehearse clichés (every immigrant has a dream) and make cute rhymes, sometimes at the expense of story logic.

Though the energetic band (with Mr. Chakrabarti on keyboards) and energetic (if spotty) cast give it their all, the show, directed by Mercedes Murphy, feels thin from the start. Still, Ms. Moore and Falu have big, belty voices that keep you listening. And Ms. Shah is a winning performer: natural and naturally funny, she makes Sunita credible against several odds.