SAN DIEGO COUNTY : STAGE REVIEW : ‘La Cage’ Comes Off Despite Flaws : Theater: Starlight’s choice to end its 44th season is inspired, but higher standards are in order as the company moves toward newer productions.

“La Cage Aux Folles” has so much heart, humor and pizazz written into it, that all it needs is a good-faith effort to prove irresistible.

Despite the curious casting of a weak vocalist (Bill Mullikin) as the singing star Albin/ZaZa, the current Starlight Musical Theatre production at the San Diego Civic Theatre is proof of the show’s indestructibility.

The production, while not top drawer, should draw anyone who likes their melodies hummable, their lyrics memorable and their messages heartwarming.

Based on the French farce of the same name, “La Cage” tells the story of a young man, Jean-Michel, who is ashamed of the parents to whom he must introduce his prospective in-laws. Why? His parents are a gay couple with a 20-year marriage, Georges and Albin. (Jean-Michel was the offspring of Georges’ one-night fling with a woman who had no interest in the child.)

And the prospective in-laws, the Dindons (meant to rhyme with ding-dongs), represent an anti-gay political party in France, where the play is set.

Spicing up the comic clashes that ensue from these odd couples in collision is the setting: a transvestite nightclub, owned by Georges, starring Albin as ZaZa in an array of glittering dresses and a crew of “Les Cagelles,” men in women’s garb, who rip through as many as three flouncy, bouncy sequined costumes in the course of the opening number. (Give costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge a hand for making those feathers fly.)

But Harvey Fierstein, who did the book, and Jerry Herman, who wrote the music, were not content with the obvious sight gags in the original farce. Together, they worked successfully to inject poignancy to the max in the 1983 hit musical.

Can Jean-Michel persuade the flagrantly effeminate Albin to absent himself from the family dinner without fatally wounding the feelings of the man who cooked and cleaned and cared for him as his mama his whole life?

Can Georges help his son in the one-night deception without betraying the man he loves? Can Albin rise above the pain of rejection to play the role of the parent who sacrifices his happiness for the sake of an ungrateful child he loves so much?

And if all that doesn’t elicit even a tiny tear from your eye, wait till you hear Albin’s song about being asked to clear his dresses out of his closets for the night with the in-laws: “I Am What I Am.”

“I am what I am/And what I am needs no excuses/ ... There’s one life and there’s no return and no deposit/One life so it’s time to open up your closet/Life’s not worth a damn/Till you can say, Hey world/I am what I am.”

The lyrics are more than a banner to gay pride; when Leslie Uggams sang it in the Herman revue, “Jerry’s Girls,” it became a woman’s song. Ultimately, it belongs to anyone struggling with issues of self-esteem and one’s place in society.

The song provides Mullikin’s best moment, but it is not the showstopper it was when George Hearn, who originated the part on Broadway, played it. Mullikin brings vulnerability and fragility but not emotional intensity or vocal depth to the role.

Even worse, Mullikin’s ZaZa, the supposed singing star, is outclassed at every turn by the singing of Broadway veteran Steeve Arlen as Georges.

Director Barry Ivan might have done more to disguise the weaknesses and heighten the dramatic strengths. Still, the show survives, with special kudos going to Arlen, who raises the company’s level of professionalism with his suave, smooth pacing, and to Eric Davenport, who got his own separate applause with an opening-night standing ovation for his sassy antics as the feisty butler, Jacob, who aspires to be a maid.

Other standouts are the Cagelles, featuring Bill Bateman as the catty Mercedes, Roger Castellano as the high-singing Chantal and Javier Velasco as the bullwhip-wielding Hannah.

Starlight favorite Patti Goodwin brings a badly needed soprano to the vocal mix as Mme. Dindon; it’s a shame that Jack Ritschel, as the grumpy M. Dindon, is obliged to shut her up in the restaurant scene where she begins to join in on ZaZa’s song, “The Best of Times Is Now.” Mullikin could have used the help.

There isn’t much depth for Kevin Schwarz as Jean-Michel and DeAnne Spicer as his bride-to-be, Anne, to flesh out in their respective parts; Jean-Michel could have benefited from more writing in Fierstein’s book to explain his changes of heart. But the two actors acquit themselves nicely.

The choreography by David Scala, who plays one of the Cagelles, Phaedra, is great fun, and well-executed by the leggy male chorus line (nice gams, guys). The sets by Ken Holamon are thin but move smoothly from club to cafe to beach scenes, adding to the glittery atmosphere.

“La Cage,” a brand new show for Starlight, was an inspired choice to end the company’s 44th season. This one works, despite its flaws, but caution is in order for next year. The movement toward newer shows, which Starlight is happily taking in the 1990 season, creates higher standards for execution because new shows cannot rely upon the magic of nostalgia to blur their faults.

“LA CAGE AUX FOLLES”

Book and lyrics by Harvey Fierstein. Music by Jerry Herman. Based on the play “La Cage Aux Folles” by Jean Poiret. Director, Barry Ivan. Music director, Milton Greene. Choreography, David Scala. Costumes, Theoni V. Aldredge. Settings, Ken Holamon. Sound, Bill Lewis. Lighting, Barbara Du Bois. Production stage manager, Jimmy Ray Hutton. With Steeve Arlen, Bill Mullikin, Jack Ritschel, Kevin Schwarz, Elmarie Wendel, DeAnne Spicer, Eric Davenport, Patti Goodwin, Dan Leal, Bill Bateman, Roger Costellano, Javier Velasco and Elmarie Wendel. At 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Sunday, with Saturday-Sunday matinees at 2, through Nov. 19. Tickets are $15-22. At 202 C St., San Diego, (619) 544-7827.