POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Pacific Symphony’s Satisfying Journey ‘On Broadway’ : Stephen Smith conducts an enthusiastic, well-arranged program featuring music from Bernstein, Sondheim, Herman and others.

Can you think of a better way to close a performance dubbed “On Broadway” than with Irving Berlin’s war horse, “There’s No Business Like Show Business”?

The Pacific Symphony couldn’t. At Friday’s pops program at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Irving Berlin’s rousing tribute to life in the footlights not only seemed cliched but out of place following a post-intermission program of more contemporary, somewhat somber music from Leonard Bernstein, Claude-Michel Schonberg, Jerry Herman and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

It was a hollow ending to what was otherwise a well-arranged program under conductor Stephen Smith, musical director of the Long Beach Civic Light Opera. Perhaps the tune would have fit better in the pre-intermission set, which included mostly lighter selections from “Gypsy,” “Showboat” and “Annie Get Your Gun.”

That first set got off to a strong start with the overture to Jule Styne’s “Gypsy” followed by vocalist Pamela Myers’ vivacious ways on “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” Myers, who was nominated for a Tony Award for her Broadway appearance in Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” worked a strong Ethel Merman vamp, with plenty of the exuberance and some of the flatness the singer is known for. Myers later showed her utility with a delicate treatment of Berlin’s “I Got Lost in His Arms,” for which she received an enthusiastic ovation.

Joining Myers in the vocal spotlight was Linda Michele, a singer of pure, clean tones who moved easily through a wide range of moods and styles. Michele worked well in tandem with vocalist Michael G. Hawkins on love-song exchanges, including Jerome Kern’s “You Are Love,” which the two closed with harmonies as tight as clasped hands.

Some of the evening’s best moments came during the second set, with the orchestra sitting idly by and Smith at the piano in an atmosphere the conductor said was akin to rehearsals he holds around his piano at home. Hawkins’ good accounting on “Bring Him Home” from “Les Miserables” was marred when his voice broke on a sustained falsetto ending. Myers brought back her Ethel Merman ways for “If He Walked Into My Life” from “Mame,” while Michele showed her range and dynamic control on “What I Did for Love.” Michele and Hawkins then teamed for a moving, “All I Ask of You” from “Phantom of the Opera.”

The orchestra’s best moments also came after the intermission, specifically on Leonard Bernstein’s overture to “Candide” and Three Symphonic Dances from “On the Town.” These pieces, combined with a trio of numbers from “West Side Story,” gave weight to Smith’s claim from the podium that when the century ends, Bernstein will be judged one of its greatest composers.

While the orchestra sometimes had trouble finding common ground with the vocalists--they lagged far behind singer Myers on “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”--their enthusiasm never waned, whether sailing through such larks as Cole Porter’s “Wunderbar” from “Kiss Me Kate” or in more ambitious pieces such as the Overture to Bernstein’s “Candide.” Credit goes to Smith for his brief, witty introductions to the various composers and their music, though he seemed to run out of ideas as the evening progressed.

The “On Broadway” program was repeated Sunday.