POP MUSIC REVIEW : HUEY DISHES UP A SQUARE DEAL

Huey Lewis is a demographic dream: He’s a Nice Guy, a Sex Symbol, a Hot Rocker and Somebody You Could Take Home to Mother.

In fact, mother has probably already heard of him and doesn’t even mind when he and his band, the News, pop up on the evening news announcing that--wake the kids and call the neighbors--it’s finally “Hip to Be Square.”

But is it hip to be as square as Lewis comes off? Not to cast any aspersions, but is Huey’s clean-cut, arena-safe update of the party-time, bar-band ethic really authentic? Is it possible to believe that any singing star that handsome and that affable won’t end up hosting “The New New Hollywood Squares” by the turn of the century?

Lewis was plenty agreeable Monday in the first of two nights at the Forum, and if what the News delivered was devoid of any emotion other than undiluted cheer, it was easy to understand why the overwhelming sense of good will attracts such a broad-based crowd.

Not a bad vibe all night--except, perhaps, in the Bruce Hornsby-penned opener “Jacob’s Ladder.” That tune’s anti-fundamentalist sentiments might seem unduly topical for Lewis, but its crucial lines, “All I want from tomorrow is to get it better than today,” pretty well sum up the sunny disposition of the rest of Lewis’ upbeat canon.

Indeed, about the only element any reasonably mainstream soul could find offensive about Lewis is the theatricality of some of that famous affability--tactics like the usual encore-baiting (“You mean you want to stay here and rock ‘n’ roll? “) and so forth.

Well, maybe that and the won’t-go-away hit “Hip to Be Square.” Any sarcasm in that anthem--the ultimate noxious apologia for yuppified burnout cases--seems purely accidental, and Lewis showed no more a gift for deadpan irony when encoring with a dead-weight rendition of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.”

But get the boy away from social commentary and commenting on his social life instead and everybody stays reasonably happy. “Stuck With You” remains as slim live as on record, but any song in 1987 with an organ solo can’t be all bad; “The Power of Love” pulled as powerful a pop punch as ever, and an extended “I Want a New Drug” was addictive enough, though lead guitarist Chris Hayes’ noted nods to another drug song--via licks borrowed from “Purple Haze”--seemed curious.

The News’ picture-perfect reproductions of the hits tended to be too similarly arranged for their own good, and Lewis’ showmanship was less dynamic than capable. But the show’s success is heavily rooted in two factors: The doo-wop-style group harmonies on such ditties as “Bad Is Bad” and the punchy addition to the stage of the five-strong Tower of Power Horns.

One element the show could have used in excess is a more potent dose of Lewis’ healthy R&B; leanings. The one oldie along those lines did help, but a few more would lessen the predictability--and it might not even hurt the demographics.