CAPSULE REVIEW : Collins Plays the 2 Notes His Solo Career Enfolds

Rarely has anyone made so much money underachieving as Phil Collins.

Fans of his erstwhile career as an art-rocker mostly figured when he started making solo albums in the early ‘80s that his flighty, fizzy pop work was a lark while on leave from Genesis and other various “progressive” projects.

Now, it’s quite clearly Genesis that’s the lark, for Phil Collins the hitmaker and cheerful video comedian is a cottage industry. Five sold-out nights at the Forum, the first of which was Wednesday, attest to that.

He clearly wants to be a full-service entertainer for the masses. His deadpan humor between songs in concert and in his videos is self-deprecating and winning, in a way that’s very English but also very rooted in the George Burns vaudeville tradition. His simple, simple songs mostly aim at being nothing more--or less--than sound tracks for sentimental swooning.

Surely Collins’ heart couldn’t be in this as deeply as his pocketbook is. Could it?

Among the evidence for the defense would be the sheer length of Wednesday’s show, which clocked in generously at just over 2 1/2 hours, offering 21 crowd-pleasing numbers--almost all of them smash Top 10 hits, from the horn-accompanied, sassy dance number “Sussudio” through the electronic piano-based sappy ballad “Do You Remember.”

Weighing in with the prosecution would be the fact that those were, almost without exception, the only two types of numbers he did all night--sassy dance number followed by sappy ballad.

This kind of pacing is deadly. Instead of instilling a sense of variety in going constantly back and forth between his peppy and languorous numbers, Collins only made it abundantly clear that--at least when it comes to the wildly popular single hits--he has but two tricks up his solo sleeve.

Collins doesn’t seem to have much of himself invested in many of these songs, save for perhaps the socially conscious weepers of his latest album, the appropriately titled “ . . . But Seriously.”

One might even question whether the self-deprecating humor might be evidence of a self-deprecating musical persona that keeps Collins from going after the more ambitious climes of which he’s capable.

A full review runs in Friday’s Calendar.