BROADWAY AT THE BOWL

One of the endearing--and enduring--qualities of the work of Lerner and Loewe is the humanity of their characters: Thinking, feeling people who happen to be singing some of the Broadway stage’s most beloved melodies.

Pity, then, that the three soloists who shared the Hollywood Bowl stage with Erich Kunzel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Friday night rarely touched those special qualities we’ve discovered in Eliza and Gigi and the others. There was no shortage of fine music-making--but one left wishing for more of an emotional connection.

Lewis Dale von Schlanbusch possesses a full-bodied baritone and crisp enunciation. Yet his bland reading of “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” (from “Gigi”) made one wonder if he really held those sentiments. Similarly, the barren loneliness of “They Call the Wind Maria” (“Paint Your Wagon”) never surfaced. Schlanbusch, however, did let loose with some nifty dance steps and a charming cockney accent in Alfred P. Doolittle’s two hit songs from “My Fair Lady.”

In her cockney number, Shawna Farrell missed the boat. The members of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, in fact, seemed closer to the streets of London in their introduction to “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” than did Farrell’s Eliza. And, sadly, her cathartic “Show Me” was positively gutless.

That playful bickering in “I Remember It Well” (“Gigi”) fell flat in the Farrell/Schlanbusch pairing. Their treatment of “What Do the Simple Folk Do?” (“Camelot”) likewise lacked depth.

Only Mark DuBois succeeded in consistently touching the audience (14,014 on Friday; 17,644 on Saturday). Most effective were his solos from “Brigadoon,” in which he revealed a suitably light Irish-sounding tenor and impressive security in the upper register.

Meanwhile the Philharmonic and Master Chorale provided exemplary support under Kunzel’s deft direction.