Julie Andrews to Survey a Life in Song in O.C.

For her first solo concert tour to the Southland in a decade, Julie Andrews has concocted a partly autobiographical program that stretches from her early days in vaudeville through her most famous movie and stage roles: “Mary Poppins,” “My Fair Lady” and “The Sound of Music.”

“Doing those songs . . . I’m kind of damned if I do, damned if I don’t,” Andrews said about the tunes from her early years. “I’ll get just as many people saying ‘why didn’t she?’ as ‘why did she?’ so it’s a question of choosing the ones I like to sing best and hoping that other people enjoy them. ‘The Sound of Music’ is obligatory, but it’s still such a pleasure.”

Her six-week national tour, which included stops over the weekend at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles (see review on Page 9), concludes Saturday at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa.

It has been a quarter-century since Andrews became an instant movie star with “Mary Poppins,” and even longer since her Broadway triumphs in “My Fair Lady” (1957) and “Camelot” (1960). Now, 24 years after her role as Maria Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music,” Andrews, 53, is still enveloped by the wholesome image created by her early roles.

Over the years, Andrews has played a few screen roles that dispelled the saccharine for a while, many directed by her film maker-husband Blake Edwards, but in person she is still as warm and engaging as her cinematic neophyte-turned-nanny, Maria.

Andrews said the current tour came about largely because “I need to sing. I don’t mean necessarily the emotional desire, which is always there, but the actual physical need to keep my vocal cords really working.

“If I don’t air my voice enough, I’m quite frightened that I will lose it. It’s one thing to practice around the house, where dogs disappear and cats scream and children close their doors, but that’s never the amount you need to keep in good shape.”

It is hard to imagine Andrews evoking that kind of household reaction. It was, after all, her four-octave range that propelled her to London stage stardom at age 12, having begun singing at 5 with her mother and stepfather, both music hall performers.

“Now,” she said, “I can’t do the coloratura anymore. But my voice was so quiet and thin then. Now it’s mature, and I can do more varied things with it.”

Indeed, the one bonus of touring, Andrews said, is the opportunity to perform songs she usually does not do, such as “Come Rain or Come Shine,” a selection from her most recent album, “Love, Julie,” a jazz-oriented collection of standards and contemporary ballads.

(Her touring show has been taped for PBS’s “In Performance at Wolf Trap” series, which may air in March.)

“Hopefully, one never stops growing and learning,” she said. “I’d like to lose certain restrictions I put on myself when I work, be able to loosen up a little bit more, be a little bit easier in my skin at times. My passion all my life has been to do as much that is varied as possible. So, inasmuch as there’s a lot out there that I haven’t tried, I guess you could say that’s my goal.”

This past month marked not only Andrews’ return to the concert stage but to TV, as she recently taped her third special with Carol Burnett, “Julie and Carol, Together Again,” for airing this fall on ABC.

“It’s been just out-and-out fun, as the other two were,” she said. “We poke a lot of fun at today (such as a “Mama’s Rap,” performed in fluorescent costumes). The friendship between us is so enduring. It’s very generous and giving.”

For her part, Burnett said later in a phone interview: “We got right back into the sandbox and giggled a lot. We’ve been through so much now, we’re more relaxed and there’s more understanding. She’ll always be the consummate professional, always keep her good humor. And she’s a mom to everyone.”

Andrews is a real-life mum to two adopted Vietnamese orphans, as well as to her own adult daughter and two stepchildren. She maintains homes in Malibu and Switzerland, is a founding board member of the relief organization Operation California, is on the board of the Foundation for Hereditary Disease, is working on her third children’s book (about the adventures of a ship’s cat) and would like to begin taking classes in making pottery or porcelain to augment her love of sculpture.

Her upcoming projects include participating in a Lincoln Center tribute in October to the late lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, performing with Andre Previn at London’s Festival Hall at Christmastime and releasing the following year a Christmas album for Hallmark.

Does she have anything left to prove--or improve?

“I’m very self-critical,” she said. “There are still a lot of gaps. I had a very good foundation in vaudeville and musicals, but it doesn’t lend to feeling particularly legitimate. I didn’t do much Shakespeare or straight acting. So there is still an awful lot I have to learn to feel secure.”

Julie Andrews sings Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Pacific Amphitheatre, 100 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $16 to $30. Information: (714) 634-1300.