One of America’s great entertainers, Carol Burnett, survived a sad and difficult early life to become a funny lady who brought smiles to the millions who spent an evening weekly with her TV variety show from 1967 to 1978. Many of the characters and sketches grew out of her beginning years and legend had it that she always pulled on her ear lobe at the end of a show to let her grandmother (who really raised her) know she was ok.

Burnett’s memoir, “One More Time,” was the basis for “Hollywood Arms,” a drama co-written by Burnett and her daughter, the late Carrie Hamilton (who died from cancer two months before the play opened). It plays through Nov. 23 in the Black box theater at Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd.

Director Terry Dodd has assembled a fine cast, Brian Malgrave’s seedy 1940s California apartment is spot-on for detail and Nicole Harrison’s costumes are period perfect. Steve Stevens’ background music from the period ties the scenes together smoothly.

The play itself is a problem. Structured as a series of sketches, interspersed with blackouts where actors and techs scramble around in the dark, it covers more than a decade in the life of a troubled family.

Helen is Burnett’s alter ego and is played by a most promising young Chloe Nosan as the little girl in 1941 and by Michelle Merz-Hutchinson, an ambitious young woman in 1951. The child lives an imaginary life up on the roof, away from alcoholic parents Louise (Sharon Kay White) and her divorced husband Jody (Jude Moran), and a frustrated, loving but controlling grandmother, Nanny (the outstanding Anne Oberbrockling). Dixie runs the front desk at Hollywood Arms (Devra Keys) and her son Malcolm (Eli Carpenter) is young Helen’s playmate in her rooftop fantasies. James Nantz is Louise’s second husband Bill, a me

By 1951, she is determined to attend UCLA and break out of the sad scene. She returns from New York to rescue her younger sister in a touching scene with mother Louise. This and other bits throughout the production are strong, but at 2 1/2 hours, it’s too long.

Performances: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; 1 p.m. Wednesdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets start at $30, 720-898-7200, www.arvadacenter.org.