A Big Voice ‘On the Town’

“I’ve always been this little peanut of a person--with a huge voice,” says Lorna Patterson, who opens tonight in the California Music Theatre production of the 1944 musical “On the Town” at the Pasadena Civic. “I started very young, but I always had an adult voice. I’m also a born ingenue. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to do this part. Hildy is definitely the character role--but it’s also the most fun part.”

The show, which follows the adventures of three sailors on 24-hour leave in New York, also gives the Whittier native a chance to show off her song-and-dance wares.

“There’s no pent-up desire to prove anything to anybody,” she stresses. “I know what I can do. Still, it’s always funny to me that people are surprised when actors can do other things than what they’ve seen them do. I’ve been singing all along--but when I did the television show (the 1981-83 series “Private Benjamin”), there wasn’t much call to sing every week.” Dancing?

“I can dance OK. I’m no ballerina.”

What she is is a proud mama to 5-year-old Marissa. “If you would’ve asked me six years ago, the last person I would’ve thought would be wild to be a mom would be me,” Patterson says. “Now I can’t imagine having to leave the house and not see her all day. For the last five years, I’ve had the pleasure of being 100 percent mom to my daughter--and I wouldn’t trade it for all the movies, plays or TV in the world.”

Now that her daughter’s starting school though, the actress (whose time away was also spent caring for her mother, who died of cancer two years ago) is looking forward to re-entering the show-biz mainstream--sort of. “I’m just getting back to life,” notes Patterson, who’s been keeping company with actor-director Michael Lembeck for the last four years. “If I got back into television, I wouldn’t want to be the lead in a series. It’s just too hard. And I’ve done it.”