O.C. STAGE REVIEWS : Taking 2 Different Voyages Down ‘Big River’ : Laguna Playhouse makes the most of the musical’s more embraceable passages and capitalizes on the talents of the professionals in the two leads.

“Big River” may have won seven Tony Awards after its Broadway premiere in 1985 (including best musical), but that really says more about the dearth of musicals that year than its own greatness.

Like Huck Finn straight-talking about everything from the perils of civilization to the trouble with lying, the honest line on “Big River” is that it’s a good ride but one that lists almost as much as it stays on course.

Roger Miller’s score has charm but is also an erratic mix of Americana folksiness and country hokum. As for William Hauptman’s book, its ambition is obvious: condensing Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” into a two-hour-long musical is almost staggering for its chutzpah. When the challenge proves too much, though, “Big River” becomes annoyingly shallow.

Director Beth Hansen couldn’t completely overcome those flaws at Thursday’s opening night performance by the Laguna Playhouse, but she and her robust cast did the next best thing.

By making the most of the musical’s more embraceable passages (especially where Twain’s frisky humor and simple humanism are linked comfortably) and avoiding much of the hemming and hawing that has afflicted other productions (including the supposedly heavyweight traveling show that docked at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in 1987), her staging satisfies much more than it leaves doubts.

It’s a pleasing evening that capitalizes on the talents of the professionals in the two leads (Danny Oberbeck as Huckleberry Finn and Ree Johnson as Jim) and several complementing amateur portrayals in lesser roles. Furthermore, set and lighting designer Robert L. Smith has shrouded the river journey in the humid greens and blues of the bayou, giving everything an accommodating atmosphere.

Perching the small band on a rickety platform above the river can be distracting, but not overly so (so, too, is an actor who plays Twain; standing off to the side of the stage, he doesn’t do much more than smoke a cigar and nod every now and then).

As for the key performances, Johnson’s Jim just about rafts away with this production. With his moody voice, easy acting and solid presence, Johnson provides the musical’s elevated moments, when “Big River” veers away from sort of a hootenanny with anecdotes to something more substantial.

We’re reminded of Jim’s plight as a slave and his seemingly impossible quest to make enough money in the North to buy his wife and children in the plaintive melodies of such songs as “Free at Last” and “River in the Rain.”

There’s little Oberbeck does wrong as Huck. Oberbeck has proven that he’s good at playing the prankish but huge-hearted man-child (he does it every year as the young Dylan Thomas in the Grove Shakespeare Festival’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”) and he does it again here, giving his Huck the requisite combination of pluck and earnestness.

Nobody has quite as much fizz as Tim Klega’s Tom Sawyer; he’s almost out of control with imagination, bouncing from one doomed scheme to the next. Mark Turnbull offers up another striking characterization as Huck’s drunken father. He turns “Guv’ment” into one nasty rail against the bureaucracy, literally leaping in anger at the thought of our government in action.

‘BIG RIVER’

A Laguna Playhouse production of the Roger Miller/William Hauptman musical. Directed by Beth Hansen. With Danny Oberbeck, Ree Johnson, Tim Klega, George Quick, Nils Anderson, Kevan Quinn, Brent Hardwick, Kate Staiger, Angela Porcu, Peter Marietta, Matt Staiger, Tisha Bellantuoni, Karen Angela, Adrienne M. Johnson, Mark Turnbull, Bill Barratt, Rita Butler, Curtis Pope, Nathan Caban, Karen Founds, Grace Heer. Choreography by Tom Hafner. Musical director: Mark Turnbull. Set and lighting by Robert L. Smith. Costumes by Karen Weller. Sound by David Edwards. Plays Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. through June 9 at 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Tickets: $14 to $22. (714) 494-8021.