ICLO Orchestrates ‘Pacific Overtures’ : Theater: ‘Audiences are hungry for something different,’ artistic director Daniel Trevino says of the Stephen Sondheim musical, which borrows from Kabuki.

When it opened on Broadway in 1976, the lavish “Pacific Overtures” drew critical praise. To tell the story of the opening of Japan to the West, a culture clash that began with Commodore Matthew Perry’s 1853 expedition, the Stephen Sondheim musical daringly utilized Japanese Kabuki dramatic techniques, including the use of a narrator and an all-male cast playing both sexes.

All praise and daring aside, “Pacific Overtures” wound up running just six months.

It took a scaled-down revival eight years later to remind the theater world of the play’s originality. By that time, it also had become topical, as the Japanese were making headlines for their financial dealings in America.

“It’s an ironic twist, since the play shows how Americans went in 139 years ago and tried to buy up Japan,” says Daniel R. Trevino, director of the Irvine Civic Light Opera production of “Pacific Overtures,” which begins a 10-performance run tonight at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

In any case, Trevino, the artistic director/founder of the ICLO and a drama teacher at Irvine’s University High School, notes that “Pacific Overtures” isn’t a jingle-jangle musical that an audience can semi-watch. “This is a challenging show. You have to listen to the words,” he says. “But I believe audiences are hungry for something different, something adventurous.”

The troupe’s 1,800 subscribers have been mailed two-page synopses of the show, which include a mini-glossary of Japanese words (among them: Mikado , “another name for the emperor”; Daimyo , “a Japanese feudal baron,” and Fiefs , “an estate over which a baron rules”).

“Pacific Overtures” is the second production by the ICLO; its first, “Evita,” was staged in February. “Overtures” has an all-male cast of 14 and seven dancers, six of whom are women. All the actors play multiple roles, some as many as four, in a story that spans decades and ends with a scene in gaudy, Westernized Tokyo.

Already having had to learn a lot of lines and lyrics, the cast now has to spend two and three hours before each performance applying Kabuki makeup. After painting their faces white, they will apply stylized eyebrows and lips, and then special wigs. The only member of the ensemble who does not need makeup and wigs is Timothy Dang, as the “reciter.” Dang, who recently directed “The Canton Club” for Los Angeles’ East-West Players, studied under Mako, who played the reciter on Broadway and who is expected to attend the opening-night performance.

“Pacific Overtures” also features two musicians playing taiko drums and the shamisen (a stringed instrument).

The elaborate sets and costumes were used for a San Jose Civic Light Opera production of “Pacific Overtures” (the ICLO used San Jose’s sets and costumes for “Evita,” too). The only addition Trevino had made to the sets is a burst of neon for the final, modern-day Tokyo scene.

Trevino feels that scene--in which the cast sports “a wild, punk, outrageous look”--details the price of progress and the perils of Westernization. “Some people may be jarred by the message,” he says. “But I think they’re also going to be mesmerized by the way it’s delivered.”

“Pacific Overtures” opens tonight at 8 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine, and continues through July 20. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets: $15-$22. Information: (714) 263-1900.