A Song and a Dance for Pat Harrington

Meet Pat Harrington, song-and-dance man. “I think I’ll be able to stave off a few yawns,” says the actor, starring in California Music Theatre’s revival “The Pajama Game,” opening Saturday at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

The 1954 show--featuring such golden oldies as “Steam Heat,” “Hey There” (you with the stars in your eyes), and “Hernando’s Hideaway”--marks a return engagement for the actor, who essayed the role of “time-study” worker Vernon Hines last April in a Washington staging.

“I had a terrific time,” he said. “So when (CMT artistic director) Gary Davis decided to do this, my people contacted him.”

(Harrington replaces the previously announced Robert Morse, who went to Boston to play Truman Capote in a solo show, “Tru.”)

“Pajama Game” isn’t all that’s keeping Harrington busy these days. He’s got a “Murder, She Wrote” episode (playing a police lieutenant) and “Ray Bradbury’s Mystery Theatre” (as an innocent tramp) upcoming, plus a healthy roster of commercials.

The actor admits to mixed feelings about the continuing presence of Dwayne Schneider, his “One Day at a Time” fix-it character, whom he’s reprised in the Trak Auto ads. “When ‘One Day at a Time’ ended, I would’ve loved to get the lead in ‘The Mission,’ ” he remarked. “But they gave that to Robert De Niro. So yes, I’d certainly enjoy doing something in a more serious vein. But since that opportunity hasn’t presented itself, I’ve used this character to generate income.”

“Pajama Game” also stars Mary Jo Catlett, Don Bovingloh, Patti Colombo, Bonnie Hellman, Keith Rice, Jack Ritschel and Lisa Robinson. Glenn Casale directs.

THEATER FILE: Two views of middle-American family life come together at the Matrix, on Melrose Ave., with the Thursday opening of George Walker’s “Better Living” and the Oct. 22 opening of Constance Congdon’s “Tales of the Lost Formicans.” The contemporary-set “Better Living” features Barbara Tarbuck as the mother; Arlen Dean Snyder as the father; Viiu Spangler, Jane Kaczmarek, Alexandra Gerston as the daughters; Jack Riley as their uncle, and Glenn Plummer as a boy friend. In the future-set “Formicans,” the cast plays both aliens and the family of earthlings they observe. Hal Bokar plays the father, Bette Ford the mother, Joan McMurtry the daughter, Joshua Goddard the grandson. Lois Foraker, Steve Pershing, and Don Schlossman round out the cast.

On Friday, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) celebrates its third season of the radio series “The Territory of Art” with “Exploring the Territory,” an evening of performance at the Japan America Theatre. Hosted by Los Angeles Festival director Peter Sellars, the program will include appearances by John Fleck, May Sun, Bob Telson, Edwina Lee Tyler and Julie Hebert. It will also be broadcast live on KCRW-FM (89.9).

CRITICAL CROSSFIRE: Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Australia-set drama “Our Country’s Good” recently had its American premiere at the Mark Taper Forum.

Said Dan Sullivan in The Times: “A group of convicts put on a play and recover the humanity that was kicked out of them on the prison ships. Bravo, I guess, but you kept hoping the play would go beyond the truism that theater helps people sort themselves out.”

The Herald Examiner’s Charles Marowitz praised “a highly articulate play about the theater’s ability to civilize. It should be required viewing for every member of the National Endowment for the Arts and Sen. Jesse Helms in particular.”

Daily Variety’s Kathleen O’Steen found “a well-paced event that seeks to shock, lampoon and unsettle with equal fervor. They’ve also assembled a bright and nimble cast, who all handle more than one role, then go back and actually manage to poke fun at audiences who can’t keep up.”

From Daryl H. Miller in the Daily News: “Max Stafford-Clark and Les Waters have skillfully co-directed the production. They and the actors explore the range of human emotion, drawing out both the humor and pathos of Wertenbaker’s script.”

Thomas O’Connor in the Orange County Register wrote: “(The play’s) American premiere proves nearly compelling enough to distract us from the drama’s self-congratulatory core, its feel-good tone, however highbrow the wrappings.”