STAGE REVIEW : The Retelling of Fairy Tales Too Oft Told

What’s the big movie this summer? “Batman.” What’s the big musical? “The Phantom of the Opera.” What do they have in common?

We already know the story. Like the Greeks trooping into the amphitheater to see the latest version of “Medea,” we’ve got a general sense of who the characters are and what sort of thing will happen to them. But we’re eager to see what this telling of the tale will produce. “Tell it again,” we say. ‘And, pray, surprise us.”

It’s the same with “Cinderella” at Long Beach Civic Light Opera and “Peter Pan” at Occidental College’s splendid new Keck Theatre. In fact, these are stories that we may know too well, those of us who aren’t children. Is there anything new to say about Cinderella?

Stephen Sondheim proved that there was in “Into the Woods.” But the LBCLO version is Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1957 TV musical adapted for the stage. It is rather sweet and slightly funny. (Cinderella’s sisters--Pamela Myers and Kathryn Skatula--are stupes rather than meanies.)

Enchanting? No. Without camping the story, Hammerstein reduces it to his kind of fairy tale, where an adorable young woman learns to follow her dream and thereby catch the prize, i.e., the prince. It’s to the credit of actress Juliet Lambert that we like Cinderella as much as we do, for her lyrics are mush.

The prince is played by Greg Louganis, the Olympic diver. When he waltzes with Cinderella, it’s a neat but modest one-two-three. He has pitch problems in “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful, or Are You Beautiful Because I Love You?”

His line readings aren’t bad, though. We can even say that he creates a character: a likable young man who doesn’t particularly want to be a prince, but who is living up to what his parents (Alan Young, Marilyn Child) expect of him. This probably comes closer to real life than the standard Prince Charming, and is at least a point of interest in Fran Soeder’s by-the-book staging.

The major technical interest is to see how the show adapts to the stage. Not badly. Cinderella’s friendly godmother, Pat Carroll, turns the pumpkin into the coach practically before our very eyes (Adam Bezark is credited with the special effects), and Cinderella throws her wedding bouquet to the audience, proving that it’s not TV.

Point of information: The King and Queen’s duet, “Boys and Girls Like You and Me,” wasn’t written for “Cinderella” but for “Oklahoma.” It was dropped in Boston and ought to be dropped here too--it doesn’t pertain.

If “Cinderella” offers no surprises, Occidental’s “Peter Pan” offers several. This is not the Disney version (back in the movie theaters this summer) and it’s not the Mary Martin musical version either. It is Sir James M. Barrie’s original 1903 play, expanded with sections from the novel.

Barrie was a mother-dominated Scots bachelor who really did believe in ghoulies, beasties and things that go bump in the dark, and there’s a lot more death and sex in his story than are dreamed of in the usual presentation.

Rather than being a sparky little guy who always gets to go out to play, Peter can almost be seen as a creature being punished for his hubris--a “lost boy” who will never make human contact, will never grow older and will never be permitted to die.

The gloom is heavily observed in Alan Freeman’s production, with its dark atmospherics (Pamela Gross did the filmy setting, Howard Schmitt the costumes) and its mournful piano music. And yet Freeman’s cast tries to play the story cheerfully, the way it is played in the musical.

The disparity created problems at the preview I saw, which also had some technical problems. For example, John Clancy as Peter--yes, a young man in the role for once--is as frank and open as Huck Finn. But with none of the latent poignancy that comes across even in the musical. It’s particularly missed when the approach is so decidedly serious.

Nancy Walsh’s Wendy did, however, evoke some of that character’s very complicated reactions when Peter insists on treating her as his mother. And the flying sequences (as in all productions of “Peter Pan,” they are managed by the Foy Brothers) are magical.

The new Keck Hall is a beauty, by the way: a state-of-the-art version of a European court theater, just large enough (400 seats) to make a young performer extend himself, but not too large to daunt him.

“Peter Pan” plays at 8 p.m. this Thursday and Saturday, and also on Aug. 18 and 20. Matinees are at 2 p.m. Aug. 20, 26, 27 and Sept. 2. Closes Sept. 2. Tickets $6-$13. 1600 Campus Rd. (213) 259-2772.

“Cinderella” plays at 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, with matinees at 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Closes Aug. 20. Tickets $7.50-$26. Terrace Theatre, Long Beach Convention Center. (213) 432-7926 or (714) 826-9371.