STAGE REVIEW : Plenty of Heat, Some Steam in ‘Pajama Game’

“The Pajama Game” is a pleasant surprise at Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Not that it is being given a gleaming revival by the California Music Theatre. The sets flap and the orchestra plays the overture as if they had just been handed their parts.

But the show itself comes through. There is more to “The Pajama Game” (1954) than remembered. Its hit songs (“Hey, There,” “Hernando’s Hideaway,” “Steam Heat”) are actually three of its poorer songs. It’s the secondary numbers that carry Richard Adler and Jerry Ross’ score, the ones specific to the business of the story.

“Racing With the Clock” never made the Hit Parade, but it establishes the brisk tempo at the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory, and it’s amusing to hear the tempo wilt when the Sleep-Tite work force pulls a slowdown in Act II.

This is a show that knows what it is doing at any tempo. George Abbott staged and co-wrote the original book (with Richard Bissell, author of the novel that the story is based on, “7 1/2 Cents”) and we can still see the craft that it took to devise a lighthearted musical about a strike.

Rodgers and Hammerstein would have gotten all noble about it. That never happens in “The Pajama Game.” And yet it has an ethic. The strike is about something, and Babe, the union gal (Lisa Robinson), is right to defy Sid, the supervisor (Keith Rice), even if it ends their affair.

This being musical comedy, we know that it will all work out--but Robinson’s Babe doesn’t know that. For a cartoon, “Pajama Game” has a surprisingly strong dramatic line. Yet it’s never too busy for a specialty number, the junkier the better, as with “Steam Heat.” This is a musical written for an audience that knew how to read musicals.

Some of its attitudes we’re not crazy about today. The notion, for instance, that the “girls” at the company picnic are just dying to be dragged into the woods, no matter by whom. Not funny anymore.

But the notion of a time-study man eating his breakfast in one gulp still has comic credence (not everything that Pat Harrington does in the Pasadena production works this well) and so does the notion of a boss, Jack Ritschel, who sees “foreigners” at the bottom of all his labor problems. The story is set in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The love story also still works, and benefits from strong casting here. Robinson and Rice leave no doubt in the vitamin-packed “There Once Was a Man” number that Babe and Sid are mightily attracted to each other. But each knows how to put his foot down. That makes the loving better, and the story more energized.

The featured players--Mary Jo Catlett, Patti Colombo, Don Bovingloh--are also well chosen. But it would be idle to pretend that the production, staged by Glenn Casale and choreographed by Carl Jablonski, has anything like the gloss of a Broadway show.

The sets are borrowed and limp, the ‘50s costumes are garish and obvious, the ensemble numbers are vigorous but ragged. (“Steam Heat” looks like a fourth carbon of Bob Fosse’s original choreography, nothing clear but the derbies.) As ever at Pasadena, there hasn’t been enough money or time to do the show right. But at least, this time, it’s the right show.

Plays at 300 E. Green St., Pasadena, through Oct.22. Performances Tuesdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. No performances Oct. 17-18. Tickets $15-$30; (213) 410-1062. ‘THE PAJAMA GAME’

The 1954 musical, presented by the California Music Theatre at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Book George Abbott and Richard Bissell (after Bissell’s novel, “7 1/2 Cents”). Music and lyrics Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. Director Glenn Casale. Music director Robert Webb. Choreographer Carl Jablonski. Scenery Virginia Lindsley and Bruce Hill. Costumes Pamela Gill and Lynn Andrews. Production stage manager Bill Holland. Lighting Ward Carlisle. With Keith Rice, Lisa Robinson, Pat Harrington, Mary Jo Catlett, Patti Colombo, Jack Ritschel, Don Bovingloh, Bonnie Hellman, Richard Seymour, Brian Galatto, Jim Ruttman, Michael Empero, Sherri Bannister, Karole Foreman, Catherine Scholl, Skip Harris, Dan Stroud, Jeff Teague, Carolyn Bjerke, Cheryl Dieterich, Omar W. Hester, Robbin McDowell, Melinda Wilson, Kathy Wood.