In theater there are legendary stories of shows that have opened in previews only to be hastily rewritten or spectacularly honed into the classics we now know. Fiddler finding its fiddler on the roof, Harold Hill in The Music Man discovered behind his newspaper, Spider Man safely rejiggered, the Lion King's fantastic opening parade, Oklahoma's theme song added at the last minute. Every show gets a make-over of some sort, some little tweak, some major surgery. No show arrives full blown like Athena out of the head of Zeus.

So what will be the fate of the Alley Theatre's world premiere musical, Noir? It desperately wants to go to Broadway, that's for sure, you can see it.

It has grand pedigree: from Tony-winning composer Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening), costumer Linda Cho (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder), and director Darko Tresnjak (Gentleman's Guide); Tony-nominated lyricist Kyle Jarrow (SpongeBob) and set designer Alexander Dodge; award-winning lighting designers Philip Rosenberg and Ben Stanton; and a Who's Who of veteran Broadway performers from Anastasia, Hamilton, The Band's Visit, Follies and countless national tours. It's a stellar cast and crew.

For all its wondrous stage effects, slick design, and mise en scene – those projections of window shades and elevator shafts from Aaron Rhyne, another multiple theater award winner, are breathtaking – the show is still in previews out of town. Noir's still finding its way.

Dubbed by French film critics, film noir was a particular American crime movie style born after World War II. Usually it featured a haunted flawed main character, perhaps a hard-boiled private eye a la Mickey Spillane or Raymond Chandler, sometimes a patsy like the dupe in James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, usually embroiled in a steamy romance with a femme fatale who often wanted to murder her husband for the insurance money or just to be rid of the old man. Steamy and sexy, the affair goes horribly wrong, and guilt gets the better of them. All this was accompanied by dark chiaroscuro photography, with shadows following them on wet streets outlined by haloed street lights. This was a remake of German expressionism cinema with a very American post-war angst. Film noir became an entire genre of moviemaking technique which is with us still. Although set in snow white Minnesota, Fargo is classic noir territory as are Reservoir Dogs, Taxi Driver, Chinatown and L.A. Confidential.

To put noir on stage isn't difficult. Stark lighting effects are a natural, nor is a claustrophobic scenic design – all handled like pros at the Alley – but the script is serviceable at best, weak at most. The writers have cribbed from Hitchcock's classic suspense Rear Window, but have forgotten to add the sexy banter and sense of inevitable dread that arises so easily from the master filmmaker.

Here in Noir, we have a schlub of a hero in The Neighbor (Adam Kantor) who's obsessed with his dead lover Scarlet (Christy Altomare), a cabaret singer. He's a songwriter, but the trauma of her death has left him a recluse, terrified of going outside his seedy apartment on La Brea Avenue in L.A. To pass the time, he eavesdrops on his new neighbors in the next apartment. The Wife (Morgan Marcell) is unhappy with Husband (David Guzman) who owes money to club owner The Boss (Clifton Samuels) we later discover was the lover of Scarlet. When the Boss and his Goon (Voltaire Wade-Greene) beat the Husband senseless in a song-and-dance act, “The Sun Shines Brighter in L.A.,” we've suddenly switched to Kiss Me, Kate-land. It's supposed to be ironic, I assume, but the tap-dancing duo bring laughter, not remorse or pity. It's a shift in tone that's wildly inappropriate.

Then there are the needless flashbacks – a staple of film noir – to Scarlet's performances at the Palm nightclub. These Las Vegas reviews with her trio of gyrating backup boys (Guzman, Samuels, Wade-Greene) sometimes comment on the current action, sometimes offer a distinct atmosphere, sometimes go nowhere and waste time. These need to be thought through, if not given an editor's unsparing red pencil.

The neighbor is such a non-entity, there's no excitement in his obsession with Scarlet. There's no heat, just his dreamy reminiscences that go on and on. The Wife and her afternoon lover have a much more steamy relationship and a sultry dance to prove it. Choreographer Karla Puno Garcia shines brightest here. She ups the ante, if only momentarily.

Sheik's music is a far cry from his propulsive, plaintive Spring Awakening score. Although the songs in Noir have jagged edges and a tendency to peter out before they get started, there's a slight '40s tenor to them. The ballads, “Hint of Dawn” with its rising electric arpeggios of hopefulness and the shadowy new-agey “Spy in the Shadows” stay in the ear longer than the others.

Seemingly of a piece and smartly designed, Noir needs judicious reworking to see a run on Broadway. For sure, there have been lesser efforts to greet the Great White Way, but they haven't stayed long either. There's much in Noir to recommend, but I'd hate to see it close in previews, out of town.

Performances are scheduled through July 3 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 2:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Alley Theatre, 615 Texas. For more information, call 713-220-5700 or visit alleytheatre.org. $28