Sometimes it hurts a play to overproduce it. That happens to Flora Atkin's "Skupper Duppers," the annual children's play at the University of Hawai'i's Kennedy Theatre.

The lightweight story gets its charm from audience interaction as a pirate captain enthralls his crew with folk tales and legends from various ports of call. It would play well in the round and in a small space.

In the vast Kennedy Theatre, designer Dean Bellin's technical effects create a "wow!" factor, making director Tamara Montgomery work hard to keep the show's natural charm afloat.

Bellin uses the entire stage for the ship's bow, stepping down to the forestage for the main deck, running a pair of gangplanks out into the seating area and setting the ship's wheel in the center of the audience. The main sail is furled exactly under the proscenium curtain.

It's a wonderful concept that makes the audience feel like it's in the body of the ship. Daniel Anteau's lighting projects rippling waves across the house walls and, with a little imagination, we might even see ocean spray coming up over the prow.

Sandra Finney whips up salty costumes for the dozen pirates and puppet designer Kris Fitzgerald creates fantasy animals in the style of "The Lion King" for one of the vignettes.

While the technical concept is excellent, it's too much for the play.

Montgomery, who usually has an unerring instinct for finding the pulse of a children's work, is distracted by traffic management in this production.

Audience interaction happens almost exclusively before the show, with pirate-song sing-alongs and competition. Once the play begins, audience participation is largely devoted to raising and lowering sails and flags amid excessive arm-waving and pirate shouting — a process that is unfortunately repeated between each scene, pulling focus and acting as anchor drag to the action.

The crew changes characters to enact short stories from Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, Alaska and Hawai'i — each of which develops some interest — but when it's time to get back into the boat, the show stops to repeat its continuity rituals.

Consequently, a little play which should run less than an hour is pumped up into a major 90-minute production.

The show's best human moments come from the Hawai'i segment, in which the god Maui is shunned by his mother and brothers and finally wins a seat in their canoe with a mix of winsome pleading and headstrong bravura.

"Skupper Duppers" intermittently sails along, buoyed by its spectacle and sense of adventure. Have the kids sit down front, where they might get a chance to tug on a rope.