O.C. STAGE REVIEW : Pros Strike Sour Note at Barclay Gala

It may not have been the first time that five Broadway veterans--four of them Tony Award winners--got together to star in a strictly bush-league production. But the show certainly came off as somebody’s idea of a high-priced amateur hour.

Only three things were major league in “On Such a Night as This,” the fund-raising Trustees’ Gala that capped a week’s worth of inaugural events Friday at the new Irvine Barclay Theatre:

The price of the tickets ($250 to $300 each), the auspicious names of the performers, and the talent fees.

Led by host Gene Barry, a Tony nominee for “La Cage aux Folles,” Tony winners Donna McKechnie (“A Chorus Line”), Michael Maguire (“Les Miserables”), Judy Kaye (“The Phantom of the Opera”) and John Cullum (“Shenandoah,” “On the Twentieth Century”) sang nearly two dozen songs, many from the shows that had won them their awards.

But the evening’s glitz fizzled from the moment the band struck up the overture. The music sounded shrill, halting, unbalanced and off-key. If the musicians weren’t sight-reading the score for the first time, they were doing a pretty good job of making it seem that way.

This patchwork revue apparently had a single run-through before the curtain went up, which is almost as embarrassing as the fact that the cost in royalties and one-night talent fees well may have come to as much as $50,000.

Ironically, most of the stars’ brightest moments had nothing to do with their original Tony-winning performances. Kaye, for instance, was liveliest and funniest doing “Never” from “On the Twentieth Century,” while her “Think of Me” from “Phantom” was absolutely dull.

McKechnie dazzled briefly with “If My Friends Could See Me Now” from “Sweet Charity,” while “Music & the Mirror”--her fabled show-stopper from “A Chorus Line”--wouldn’t have gotten her a call back in a real audition.

Cullum opened the revue with the title tune from “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” his best song. Unlike “Meditation” from “Shenandoah” and “I Rise Again” from “On the Twentieth Century,” it did not need a dramatic context to make its point.

Proving the exception to the rule, Maguire was most affecting with “Bring Him Home” from “Les Miz.” But his calculated style for “The Music of the Night” from “Phantom” was cloying. And his River City number, “Ya Got Trouble” from “The Music Man,” while likable enough, showed that he lacks the moves or the vitality of a Robert Preston.

Meanwhile, Barry’s patter throughout the show was good-natured but uninspired. He read it all as written, by the numbers. He also managed to get through three songs himself. The less said about those, the better.

Perhaps the highlight of the revue, depending on your taste for cuteness, was McKechnie and Maguire singing “Anything You Can Do” from “Annie Get Your Gun.” They appeared to be enjoying themselves just like performers might be expected to upon discovering that their duet actually works.

The scenery for the bare-bones stage consisted of a backdrop scrim that alternately glowed blue and red and sometimes a combination of both colors accented by a cliche of starlight, along with a series of overhead posters announcing the Broadway shows featured in the revue.

If the posters were hand-painted copies of the originals by scenic designer John Iacovelli, as I’ve heard told, then I take back what I said earlier. Four things--not three--were major league in “On Such a Night as This.” The posters were the fourth.

Thomas H. Nielsen, chairman of the Irvine Barclay’s board of trustees, announced in a lengthy curtain speech that $5.5 million had been raised in private and corporate gifts over the past two years--exceeding the trustees’ $4.8-million goal. Presumably, the revue’s net proceeds of $75,000 were included in Nielsen’s figures.

According to theater spokesman Dave Dickstein, an audience of 475 paying guests attended the fund-raising show and the dinner held afterward under a huge tent erected on the UC Irvine campus next to the theater.

‘ON SUCH A NIGHT AS THIS’

An Irvine Barclay Theatre production. Presented by Mazda Motors of America, Inc., The Times Orange County, PacTel Cellular and Douglas C. Rankin. Directed by Glenn Casale. Associate producer Joan Simmons. With Gene Barry, John Cullum, Judy Kaye, Donna McKechnie and Michael Maguire. Musical director Dennis Castellano. Scriptwriter Tom Hatten. Lighting design by Liz Stillwell. Scenic design by John Iacovelli. Music coordinator Daniel Glosser.