STAGE REVIEW : Mixed Results in Long Beach Version of ‘Cowardy Custard’

“Cowardy Custard,” at Long Beach’s Studio Theatre, is new to the West Coast. But it may look familiar to anyone who caught “Oh Coward!” in one of its local incarnations.

These collections of songs, brief sketches and other reflections from the pen of Sir Noel Coward are much like each other.

“Cowardly” begins with a rush of truncated solos, none of which has time to make much of an impression. But the show catches its breath as the first half goes on. It finally catches some real laughs in a rendition of “Mad About the Boy,” with verses sung consecutively by four disparate women characters, all of them watching their idol in a movie theater. And certainly you’ve got to give credit to any show that precedes intermission with a number titled “Why Must the Show Go On?”

The second half begins with a rousing selection of music-hall numbers, suggesting a lower, heartier class than the drawing room habitues we usually associate with Coward. Some of these songs are sentimental ditties about London, but the sentiment disappears in the next, strategically placed number, “There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner,” the lyrics of which belie the spirit of the melody. It’s Coward at his wittiest.

The show was assembled by Gerald Frow, Alan Strachan and Wendy Toye and first presented in London in 1972.

This cast is best in the group numbers, most of them adroitly directed by Kent Johnson and choreographed by Roberta Kay. Carole Best’s robust voice and presence are especially memorable, and Alan Wager projects the slightly frantic focus of a young social climber who hasn’t quite made it to his destination. But a couple of the men look too juvenile for Coward’s worldly lyrics, and a couple of the women sound excessively fluttery on occasion.

Musical director D. Jay Bradley not only provides most of the expert piano accompaniment but also steps in to play Coward. He doesn’t look much like Coward, but he speaks and carries himself with a debonair bearing that’s in the ballpark.

A glittery strip across the step at the center of the stage looks too meretricious for Coward. The costumes were coordinated (not designed) by Ryk del Campo, but a few of them are trite or puzzling. A Nehru jacket and miniskirt in a song called “Beatnik Love Affair” suggest the wrong decade. And the cast got carried away with looking quaint in the music-hall medley.

At 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m., through April 28. $12-$14; (213) 494-1616.