REDDY: FULL SPEED AHEAD . . . AND BACK

Refreshed from a week’s vacation in Bermuda where she and her husband celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary, Helen Reddy got down to some serious talk, including a few curious revelations about her “earlier days”--the 12th or 13th Century, that is.

Although seldom quoted about her strong beliefs in reincarnation, psychic phenomena and “out-of-body” experiences, Reddy said she talks about such things if asked. But apparently, she maintains a profile somewhat lower than that of Shirley MacLaine, for example.

“I believe we switch back and forth constantly,” she said. “I’ve had more male lives than female.”

After four decades in the entertainment business in this life--with all those concerts and hit records behind her (she has recorded 18 albums since 1970)--the 45-year-old Australian-born singer still has the throttle set at full speed. But now she is on a zigzag course and loving every minute of it.

Fifteen years after winning a Grammy Award for the song she co-wrote, “I Am Woman” (best female pop vocal)--a song that became an anthem for feminists--Reddy is branching out as businesswoman, author, film producer and . . . stage actress.

Tonight, she will make her Southland musical theater debut in the Long Beach Civic Light Opera production of “Anything Goes,” which runs through Aug. 9 at the Terrace Theater.

“I was raised in the theater, doing comedy sketches, musical numbers,” she said during a recent interview at her unpretentious Santa Monica home. “But the only American shows I’ve done in their entirety were those in Sacramento.”

Two summers ago, Reddy starred there in “Anything Goes,” the Cole Porter musical that opened on Broadway Nov. 21, 1934, ran for 420 performances and made a star of Ethel Merman. Last year Reddy returned for “Call Me Madam.”

“It’s getting to be a summer ritual,” she said. “I was always talked out of it (musical theater) by my management. It’s such a drastic pay cut. I can make more in one night doing a concert than one week in a play. But I enjoy the camaraderie, being part of an ensemble. It’s a nice change for me. It’s a supplement--part of what I do. I flatter myself that I have the talent for it.”

Nonetheless, concert commitments still dominate her schedule. During last week’s rehearsals, she flew to New York for a one-night show in Brooklyn, returning the next day. She said she has “two or three” concert dates a month.

If Reddy were to label herself as an entertainer, it would be as “a performing artist. In England and Australia, the stress is on versatility. In this country, the attitude is if you do more than one thing, you do it poorly.”

Despite her success as a recording artist (10 gold and platinum records, including such hits as “Angie Baby,” “Delta Dawn” and “You and Me Against the World” plus “Woman”), over the years critics generally have turned in mixed reviews of her solo performances, using such phrases as “competent but unexciting.” Reddy tends to ignore such criticism.

“I like to work live,” she said. “There’s nothing quite like the thrill of a live audience. . . . I like the element of risk. Show business satisfies my gambling instincts.

“I have forgotten words, slipped on some water that had been spilled and fallen flat on my rear in Vegas, split my pants in a theater in the round. . . . I enjoy things going wrong. You have to think on your feet.”

Is she embarrassed about such incidents?

“Not really. No, I don’t feel embarrassed, quite honestly. The word failure is not in my vocabulary. I learn something every day. It’s human to make mistakes.”

Reddy said she had been offered Broadway shows in the past, “but I turned them down. I wouldn’t be comfortable uprooting my child to live in New York for a year.”

The reference was to her 14-year-old son, Jordan, by her previous husband, Jeff Wald, Reddy’s former manager.

The singer also has a married daughter, Traci, by another husband. Her present spouse, Milton Ruth, is a drummer who manages her band.

“He came to work for me in the band,” she said, “but in a previous life, I was working for him.”

As a 12-year-old, Reddy said she had an “out-of-body experience” during a school assembly.

“I didn’t feel well,” she recalled. “I saw brown spots in front of my eyes. I remember I was in the back of the room, looking down at somebody lying on the ground. Somebody had fainted. I wondered who it was. I saw that it was me. . . .”

Reddy related a number of stories about “past lives”--when she was a merchant traveling across a desert in Persia and was murdered by a tribe of Bedouins; when she was a servant for her present husband, a jouster in England during the “12th or 13th Century. . . .”

“I used to go with him to look out for his horse. I was very devoted. He was my master. He was wounded in competition. I ran out on the field and he died in my arms.”

Reddy recalled a later association with her husband, “somewhere around the 17th Century. He was an aristocrat, elegantly dressed. I’m riding alongside his carriage. My job is to protect him. . . .”

The memory ended abruptly. Meanwhile, in the 20th Century, Reddy--the businesswoman--is leading no such menial existence.

“I’m getting more and more away from entertaining,” she said. “I have my own company--Helen Reddy Inc., writing and production.”

She expects to complete a book and final editing on a screenplay based on it within a month. Reddy started writing the book (she declined to reveal the title) 14 years ago when her parents died.

The movie--to be shot in Australia in November, December and January--is an action-adventure story dealing with the founding of Australia and focusing on Reddy’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, a pimp and thief, who was sent Down Under on a convict ship almost 200 years ago.

Reddy, who will be executive producer of the film, said she is in her office “at least five days a week.”

“I handle all my business affairs myself. I have to read a lot to stay up with the latest tax laws. I rather enjoy business things.

“I find that if I spend a long period writing, 17 or 18 hours straight, the next day I have an urge to work with figures, with numbers.”

It was slightly past 7 p.m., and Reddy was showing signs of fatigue after a long day.

“I was up at 4 this morning,” she said. “I wake up naturally. . . . I can’t wait to wake up in the morning and jump into my life.”

She was talking, of course, about this one.