STAGE REVIEW : A Night in Shining Amour : Musical: Set in a different time, our election year travails, nevertheless, are ever present in “Camelot.” It gets Starlight’s first standing ovation of season.

“Camelot,” now in a handsome production at Starlight Musical Theatre’s Starlight Bowl, packs quite a punch in an election year.

Watching King Arthur try to build a better society than the one he inherited, you’ll wish he were running for office. Not only does this guy have good, detailed programs, but he shows over and over that he can put them into effect.

Alas, the other side of Camelot, the side that ultimately brings Arthur down, is much more familiar: The accusations of marital infidelity, the spoilers waiting in the wings, the fighters itching for an excuse to go to war.

The Alan Lerner-Frederick Loewe score is luscious. The story, however, in the wrong hands, can be as soap operish as the daily news from Buckingham Palace. Good actor-singers are the key to keeping the show from spilling over into melodrama. Fortunately, Starlight has cast well overall.

Arthur (James Brennan) is the heart of the piece. A young man uncomfortable in his role as king, Arthur gets ambitious to do great things when he meets and marries Guenevere (Ann Winkowski). Guenevere loves him and helps him realize his dream of redirecting his warlike knights to peacetime quests that will be planned around his Round Table.

Brennan delivers a passionate performance as the tormented Arthur, struggling to keep his personal and regal life from catastrophe. He does a tender job with the classic song, “How to Handle a Woman.”

Winkowski is a better singer than an actress as Guenevere; her voice is sweet, but less than memorable because her performance lacks depth.

Meanwhile, all is well--but a little boring--at Camelot until Gordon Goodman enters as the swaggering, hubris-filled Lancelot. He falls for Guenevere. Guenevere falls for him, and while they fight their impulses out of loyalty to Arthur and his dream of a new, civilized society, the show starts cooking.

Goodman, like Brennan, makes you feel

his character’s pain. Also it doesn’t hurt that Goodman’s voice is the most powerful of the three. His “If Ever I Would Leave You,” one of the great songs of “Camelot,” explodes under the stars.

Lerner and Loewe based “Camelot” on T. H. White’s “The Once and Future King.” When the musical first opened in December, 1960, the show got bad reviews, which seems remarkable now in the light of its obvious longevity. But it always did well with audiences.

The story’s appeal lies in its articulation of eternal human dilemmas--the question of what you do when you love someone you shouldn’t, and how much you are willing to sacrifice to do the right thing.

*

The strength of the direction by Don and Bonnie Ward, the co-artistic directors of Starlight, lies in its emphasis on the triangle and the way the three leads wrestle with their choices. The first act is a little slow until Lancelot arrives. After that, the only scene that seems lacking is the penultimate one, the action scene in which Guenevere is to be burned and rescued. The crowds, the confusion, the mad melee are all strangely absent.

But the crowd at the Bowl was already too won-over by that point to be let down. The planes that regularly interrupt the action never seemed less bothersome. After 2 hours and 45 minutes of fine lead and ensemble performances supported by Marilyn Prine’s glittery costumes, Gregory Allen Hirsch’s warm lighting and some pretty dancing choreographed by the Wards, the crowd gave the show a standing ovation--Starlight’s first of the season.

“CAMELOT”

Adapted from “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White. Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Music by Frederick Loewe. Originally directed and staged by Moss Hart. Directors and choreographers, Don and Bonnie Ward. Musical director/conductor, Lloyd Cooper. Costumes, Marilyn Prine. Lighting, Gregory Allen Hirsch. Sound, Bill Lewis. Hair and make-up, by Donalee Braden. Stage manager, Elizabeth Stephens. With James Brennan, Ann Winkowski, Gordon Goodman, Peter Browne, Scott Dreier, Ron Choularton, Shirley McQuerter, Girlie Girl, Ben Forth, Jim Zubiena, Ruff Yeager, Rick Stockwell, Patrick Nollet, Dan Leal, Jamie Snyder, Matt Alexander, Michael Dotson, Nancy Streeter, Christine Phelps, Susan Jordan, Rick Bulda, Jonathan Taylor and Brad Bradley. At 8 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday through Aug. 30, and 8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday through Sept. 6. Tickets are $8-$25. At the Starlight Bowl, Balboa Park, 544-7827 or 278-TIXS.