THEATER REVIEW / ‘THE HOT L BALTIMORE’ : Check Out Time : Lanford Wilson takes an affectionate look at characters who cling to hope in the face of inevitable decline.

There are more burnouts inside “The Hot L Baltimore” than in the sign above it. Yet Lanford Wilson’s 1973 compilation of quirky old-timers, prostitutes, fugitives, and other outcasts is worth revisiting in this production updated for the ‘90s.

If Ronald Reagan was the father of trickle-down economics, as one of Wilson’s deadbeats points out in one of the few dialogue revisions, then these are his children--losers bred of social apathy and despair, killing time in the condemned ruins of a once-great hotel.

“Why do they tear everything down?” wonders the nameless call girl (Katrina Lake) in the lobby. “I really hate it that nobody cares . . . this used to be the most exclusive medium-sized hotel on the Eastern Seaboard railroad line.”

The fact that she knows the difference reveals a longing for more than survival--there’s a poetic soul beneath the tacky veneer.

Another prostitute (Von Gray) is a feisty wellspring of self-deprecating humor as she proudly shows off her “silk-Dacron kimono” and mouths off about the world at large (“If my clientele represents a cross-section of American manhood--we in trouble”).

Still another (Liz Larin) resents the designation of her profession--”I’m not a hooker! I’m a friendly person--it just gets me in trouble.”

With warmth and compassion unmatched in the theater since Chekhov, Wilson finds much to appreciate in his characters, and by the end of the play we can’t help sharing his affection for them.

What’s most remarkable is the way our sympathy and interest are engaged entirely by their personalities--there’s little in the way of plot momentum here.

The success of the piece lies with the individual performers in the 16-member cast. While most are generally competent in their roles, the standouts are Gray’s saucy, exuberant hooker; Ian Jasper as a slow-witted teen-ager who believes in his sister’s dream of starting over on a farm out West; and Donald Austin as a mysterious visitor on a quest to find the long-lost grandfather his parents refused to take into their home.

Director Pope Freeman gives his cast members plenty of leeway to indulge their characters--there’s less of a sense of minding the clock than in a more plot-driven show--and the pacing varies with pauses and overlapping dialogue reminiscent of a Robert Altman film.

The loosely structured delivery gets a bit sloppy, however, in exchanges where the characters speak with one another rather than at each other--more of the give-and-take timing of actual conversation is needed.

Production values are solid, and the lobby set by Charles Thomson Garey and Keven Strasburg sets a suitable tone of dilapidated elegance. The compact stage of the Studio Theater fosters the right level of intimacy for Wilson’s drama about hope that stubbornly resists the decline.

As the music blares from the lobby radio, Von Gray is all smiles in her invitation to a final dance even though “the bulldozers are barking at the door.”

* WHERE AND WHEN

“The Hot L Baltimore” will be performed Dec. 2 through 12, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. at the Santa Barbara City College Studio Theatre, 721 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara. Running time is 2 hours, 10 minutes. Tickets are $14 for Fridays and Saturdays, $12 for all other performances. For reservations or information, call 965-5935.