Show Re-Creates Colorful History of Rock ‘n’ Roll : Revue: Chapman College’s six-performance run, which features students impersonating greats and near-greats, is a tradition begun years ago by an English professor/rock fan.

Every five years, Paul Frizler makes a temporary transformation from Chapman College English professor to rock ‘n’ roll impresario.

That’s when Frizler, a rock fan from its earliest days, puts on his popular stage revues that feature students impersonating greats and near-greats from rock’s colorful past. The latest edition, “35 Years of Rock & Roll,” has a preview tonight at Chapman before opening a six-performance run Friday.

The complexities of putting on the show, which includes about 90 singers, musicians, dancers and technical people, is taking its toll on Frizler, who looked and sounded tired in an interview Tuesday. He was battling the flu, which had already made its way through his cast, and had just canceled a technical rehearsal after problems with a lighting board.

Adding to the demands on his time, Frizler is serving as chairman of the school’s English department this semester.

“When I was elected the faculty chair, I was advised not to do the show,” Frizler said. But he’s doing it anyway, though he admitted he has doubted the wisdom of his decision at times.

The revue was born as an outgrowth of a fraternity skit in 1975, back when rock history, by Frizler’s calculations, only stretched back 20 years. He has returned with an updated version every five years since.

Frizler began his preparations this time with a crash course in current music--the professor admits he doesn’t keep up as much as he used to. Then it was on to six weeks of auditions, in November and December. While he had a general idea of what he wanted to do, he didn’t pick the music until he got a look at the available talent.

Only two of the students, a duo that did a Simon & Garfunkel routine, came to the audition knowing who they wanted to impersonate. The rest just sang--”They’ll come in singing Broadway show tunes or slow ballads,” Frizler said with a laugh. Over the series of auditions, he slowly matched the young singers with rock stars he thought they could play.

“We try to get someone who looks like them,” with the help of makeup and wigs, if necessary, “and sounds something like them,” Frizler said. “I was able to find everyone I wanted to do.”

Then Frizler picked the music and wrote the show, and on Jan. 2 the cast and crew launched into six weeks of rehearsals, missing only a few Friday nights and Super Bowl Sunday. Along the way have come technical problems, such as the lighting board mishap, the cast’s flu epidemic and even bouts with injury (the original lead guitarist had to drop out when he hurt his back).

When Frizler researched this show, he came up against what he considered a resurgence of racism and sexism in rock and pop, exemplified by such songs as the Guns N’ Roses tune “One in a Million” (which includes epithets directed at blacks, gays and immigrants) and the Public Enemy hit “Fight the Power” (which Frizler has described as undercut by an “undertone of violence and racism”).

Racism in rock became the ongoing theme for this year’s revue. The show with a production number from the musical “Grease,” which Frizler said glorifies the ‘50s myth of “a lot of white teen-agers spontaneously inventing rock ‘n’ roll.” It then moves on to such black ‘50s artists as Fats Domino, Etta James and the Robins--and segues to the tepid white remakes of the songs that became hits.

Act I moves through the ‘60s and then dispenses with the ‘70s in K-Tel commercial fashion: “It’s over like that,” Frizler said, snapping his fingers. Act II takes the show into the ‘80s, opening with the B-52s song “Rock Lobster” but moving on to include “One in a Million” and “Fight the Power.” Frizler follows those controversial tunes with a Tracy Chapman song and, in what he sees as a symbolic meeting of white and black pop styles, a re-creation of the Run/DMC and Aerosmith teaming on “Walk This Way.”

Despite the show’s contemplative undertone, though, Frizler said it is mostly designed to be fun. It has developed a loyal following over the years with sellout crowds, said Frizler, who has noted two distinct audiences: nostalgia-minded adults who often leave after the first act, and the youngsters who sneak into the theater and take their seats for the newer music of Act II.

“This show has never missed,” Frizler said. “It’s always fun.”

A preview performance of “35 Years of Rock & Roll” begins at 8 p.m. in the Memorial Auditorium at Chapman College, 333 N. Glassell St., Orange. Tickets: $5. Regular run: Friday through March 3. Tickets: $5 to $15. Information: (714) 997-6812.