Doris Mason and Denny Doherty in 'Dream a Little Dream' at the Village Theater, NYC, 2003.

Wryly written by Doherty and Paul Ledoux, "Dream a Little Dream" is fancifully enhanced with a mix of the Mamas and Papas' best-known songs, plus a loving spoonful of other flower-powered hits. The musical traces the almost-true story of the Mamas and the Papas' rise and fall. It begins with Doherty's wide-eyed odyssey as an unknown Canadian folk-music purist and moves onto the band's chart-topping fame and Denny's ultimate misfortune as one third of the '60s most famous love triangles. No, not John, Paul and Yoko, or Kirk, Spock and Lt. Uhuru, but Denny and two other members of the Mamas and Papas: John Phillips and his angelic and indecisive bride Michelle Phillips.

What sets "Dream a Little Dream" apart from other bio-musicals – such as last year's admirable Janis Joplin production, "Love Janis," and Broadway's current hoot of a Hank Williams stage tribute, "Lost Highway" – is having the actual Doherty reminiscing and singing along with the show's cast of dead-on lookalikes. Though Steely Dan's Donald Fagan would be passable, it's doubtful anyone but Denny could recall with requisite relish the magic and tragic moments that brought him from Halifax to Hollywood, where he "drank so much Crown Royal, I could have made curtains of the purple velvet bags."

The Mamas and the Papas

As for the rest of cast, a performer with the warmth and talent, not to mention girth, of "Mama" Cass Elliot moves the earth only once every generation. But keeping Denny at his dutiful best is delightful Canadian dreadnought Doris Mason as Mama Cass. Whether performing with the rest of the Dream band – including Angela Gaylor (a ravishing ringer for Michelle Phillips) and Richard Burke as John Phillips – or soulfully solo, Mason brings a genuine joy to Mamas and Papas classics like "Monday, Monday," "Dedicated to the One I Love" and the title tune "Dream a Little Dream."

Ultimately, it's the music and the performer's love of it that lifts Doherty's diaries above the usual behind-the-scenes, kitsch-and-tell tabloid fodder. Whenever the soap-opera saga and typical litany of excess in the express lane threatens to derail the Mamas and the Papas' freight train of love, the band kicks into another number, climaxing with Doris singing the title tune. Thanks to the warmth of Doherty's recollections, the less memorable Papa proved to have the best memory of all.

But "Dream a Little Dream" is more than an acid trip down memory lane, it is also Denny's love poem to Mama Cass, a woman whose heart knew no bounds. Unfortunately, however, neither did her appetite. In 1974, Cass died of a heart attack at the age of 32. In 2001, John Phillips also died of heart failure. He was 65.

So, if you've got a taste for tambourines, ukuleles and hippy-dippy harmonies, and always wanted to journey to San Francisco with flowers in your hair, or can imagine a time when Monday, Monday was a bluesy ballad and not a call to the suicide hotline, groove on down to the Village Theater. Where the summer of love blooms two hours nightly and for the price of admission and a couple of Mama Cass Margaritas, California Dreaming can become a reality... if you know what I mean.