"Come look at the freaks!" sings the creepy sideshow proprietor (Robert Joy), waving at the Three-Legged Man, the Cannibal King, the Bearded Lady and, the show's moneymaker, conjoined twins Violet and Daisy Hilton.

But what the musical "Side Show" does is more like a magic trick. From the beginning, it helps us see beyond the characters' freakish exteriors to the big hearts beating within.

Everyone is a little kinder than you might expect. The geek (Matthew Patrick Davis) — a sideshow freak who bites the heads off chickens — bakes cakes on the side. The Cannibal King, also called Jake (a showstopping David St. Louis) loves the twins and protects them whenever he can. Even the smooth-talking manager who "rescues" them, Terry (Ryan Silverman), is less cad and more confused.

"Side Show" is based on the true story of conjoined twins who found some fame in vaudeville and Hollywood in the 1930s. Originally mounted on Broadway in 1997 to mixed reviews, it closed after only 91 performances — but became a cult favorite. This reworked version landed on Broadway after successful mountings in both California and Washington, D.C. The book and lyrics are by Bill Russell and the music is by Henry Krieger.

I didn't see that first version, so I don't know how this one compares. What I can tell you is that under director Bill Condon, this "Side Show" is flashy, warm and sometimes soaring — but it tries to do so much that the story feels muddy and less emotionally resonant than it should be. This is a show with wonderful characters and thrilling songs in search of a story that does them justice.

Instead, we have a pastiche of tropes. There's the naive girl (or "girls" in this case) who is made into a star by a slightly shady producer and then abandoned. There is the closeted gay guy who is finally true to himself. There's the corruption of the entertainment industry and the media. There's loving a guy who doesn't love you back. There's the outsider who makes good. There's the one who leaves home and goes into the world, only to learn that home is where she always belonged. No wonder it's almost three hours.

The bright spots? The twins, played by Emily Padgett as Daisy — who wants fame — and Erin Davie as the shyer Violet, who wants a home and a husband. They give an extraordinary performance, managing to move together in winsome song-and-dance numbers while expressing completely different characters. 

And there's St. Louis's Jake, in an underwritten part, who nonetheless brings the show a searing emotional depth that it otherwise lacks.

Plus, there's David Rockwell's simple-yet-effective sets that capture both the sparkling illusion and the grungy underside of entertainment, and Paul Tazewell's jaunty costumes.

"Side Show" is not about the freak in all of us. Instead, it's about the humanity in all of us. And if it focused on that theme, it would have been a very good show indeed.