STAGE REVIEW : NEWLEY IN AN UPDATED ‘WORLD’ IN COSTA MESA

Anthony Newley delivered a curtain call speech to the Segerstrom Hall audience Tuesday night that any Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce official would die for.

He let us know that his nightmare of the 3,000-seat hall upstaging his touring revival of “Stop the World--I Want to Get Off” proved to be just that: illusory. He might have had some arguments from the folks in the upper tiers, but for those in the orchestra section, this updated version of the Newley-Leslie Bricusse musical seemed to fit the physical plant just fine, thank you.

The only aspect that could upstage this show is Newley himself--or rather, Newley of a decade or so since. He hasn’t played Littlechap (who rises to the top of British industry and politics at a cost no Horatio Alger character ever knew) since the Broadway run that made him a star 25 years ago. For this role, at least, he appears to have passed his prime.

Whether it was errant miking or Newley’s vocal limitations, even the orchestra patrons talked of having a hard time hearing him, especially in the tunes they came to hear. “Once in a Lifetime,” both introduction and reprise, was muffled; “What Kind of Fool Am I?” barely survived Newley’s characteristically cavalier way with the melody and lyric. His Littlechap sometimes became little indeed.

Particularly so when he was up against the towering, witty, multi-accented Suzie Plaksin, who plays Littlechap’s suffering wife as well as his Russian, German and American lovers (all in the same “Chorus Line”-style costume, suggesting an Everywoman). Just when Littlechap seems to be getting his way with any woman who catches his eye, Plaksin’s various women put him in his place. Wife Evie puts him in a household, taking care of babies. Soviet tourist guide Anya tries to give him some lessons in “East-West relations.” Ilse, his German maid, thinks he may be suitable for entry into the Master Race. American corporate boss Lorene shows him that a woman can run things, too. It’s absolutely clear that Plaksin has the run of this show.

Her evanescent quality of a cosmopolitanism mixed with charming self-deprecation, to say nothing of a singing voice that needs no aid from Segerstrom’s fine acoustics, are sorely missed in the second act. Here, it’s all Littlechap, grown out of his Charlie Chaplin poor-me phase into a captain of industry, then a member of Parliament, then a lord, and finally retirement when he realizes what kind of fool he is after Evie dies.

Newley and Bricusse’s serious, memento mori kind of framework for Littlechap’s life inventory clashes with, rather than illumines, the lighter first-act frolics. The substitute for Plaksin’s luminous presence is an endless stream of punny jokes (“I think I can say, without fear of contraception . . . “) and political barbs that wear thin when we realize that the play’s journey is over long before the play itself is over.

Newley and Bricusse have used the political lines as terrain for updating the show, or at least the show’s references. Talk of Chernobyl, South Africa, Maggie Thatcher and Dick Nixon now replaces topics from 1961. The female ensemble that struts and dances around Littlechap like a mocking Greek chorus stuck in Chelsea all wear ersatz punk outfits (Carol Oditz did the costumes).

But try as Newley and Bricusse might to get the show out of the ‘60s, they can’t get the ‘60s out of the show. At its best, “Stop the World” is a renegade musical in the finest revolutionary tradition of that period. It combines completely unpalatable sexism, both in look and statement, with a wonderful mocking of conventions (and political systems, from British to Soviet). David Chapman’s sculptural set even has the shell of that ideal ‘60s car--the VW Bug. The updates nearly come off as pandering: This musical is very much of its own time, wherein its charm lies.

Newley’s direction lacked a ‘60s kind of briskness, but no complaints at all for Tom Fay’s musical direction and the uncredited lights.

Performances at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa run tonight and Friday, 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 2 and 8 p.m. Ends Sunday ((714) 556-2121).