STAGE REVIEW : ‘Rain’ Has Harmony, Fails to Sing

Picture this: Flappers Charleston across the stage in daring knee-high dress; passion flares between Star Established and Star Fledgling; Monumental Pictures switches to talkies. Yet even with a happy ending, something is amiss in director-choreographer Rob Barron’s production of “Singin’ in the Rain” for Fullerton Civic Light Opera.

It doesn’t seem to be the casting. Beverly Ward plays Kathy Selden, a flapper Cinderella who goes from jumping out of cakes at Hollywood parties to become a Hollywood Star in her own right. Ward has solid stage presence: Even if anyone didn’t know how the story turns out, her regal composure in both “Beautiful Girl” and “All I Do Is Dream of You” leaves no doubt as to the story’s ending.

Kirby Ward--Beverly’s husband offstage--plays her love interest, Don Lockwood, star of the silent screen. He is a little arrogant toward Kathy at first, and rightly so, as he is accustomed to being adored by a cheering throng--so much so that he doesn’t know what to make of her standoffishness. Their first meeting at a trolley stop is magical.

But the chemistry between Lockwood and his supposed boyhood friend, Cosmo Brown (Randy Rogel) is not convincing. While Rogel’s pratfalls in “Make ‘em Laugh” are entertaining, a duet between Rogel and Kirby Ward, “Fit as a Fiddle,” emerges more as two solos. Finally, Diane Vincent is silent-film star Lina Lamont, a selfish, egocentric, dingy blonde, soon be a casualty of the talkies because of the shrill voice Vincent so effectively contrives. It is this awful voice that in part provides the answer to the question she raises in her song, “What’s Wrong With Me?”

Without major flaws in the casting, what about the special effects? They too seem to work. This production effectively incorporates video. The silent film, “The Royal Rascal,” starring Don and Lina, is appropriately overblown and melodramatic. And a humorous preview of “The Dancing Cavalier,” Monumental Pictures’ first fling at a talkie, is humorous because of Lina’s quacking.

What, then, is missing? After the initial charm of this evening’s performance wore off, the overall feeling was that, as competent as this performance was, there was nothing extraordinary, nothing to justify more than momentarily that gee-whiz feeling at the end. It was as charmingly flat as the stage’s backdrops: It only implied depth. This is Weber’s bread musical theater: blandly nutritious, but adequately packaged; uninspired, but at least filling.

‘SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN’

A Fullerton Civic Light Opera Company production of the screenplay and adaptation by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. Directed and choreographed by Rob Barron. With Kirby Ward, Beverly Ward, Randy Rogel, Diane Vincent, Debbie Rothstein, Mark Clark, Laurie Caceres, Daniel Kruger, Pamela Vargo, Terri Gandy, Richard Comeau, David S. Monge, Griff Duncan, Kerine Panichi, Bob May, Joe Hershion, Jason Subia, Michael Garcia, Ryan Ghyseis, Brad Beckow, Shahara Ray, Karen Nowicki, Kit A. Wilson, Joe Fletcher, Edgar Burger, David Krinitt, Kami Seymour, Mary C. Shook, Kathleen Sullivan. Musical director-conductor, Lee Kreter. Stage manager: Donna R. Parsons. Artistic director-producer: Jan Duncan. Costume coordinator: Ambra Wakefield. Technical director: Jim Oxley. Makeup artist: Heather Stafford. Costume design: Scott A. Lane. Lighting design: Donna Ruzika. Sound technician: A.J. Gonzalez. Plays Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Additional Sunday performance at 7:30 p.m. Through March 3. Plummer Auditorium, 201 E. Chapman Ave., Fullerton. Tickets $12 to $23. (714) 879-1732.