STAGE / NANCY CHURNIN : Dad, Daughter Team Up

Bob James, 52, and Hilary James, 26, are a father-daughter team in the making.

Hilary James will sing a song composed by her father as she plays the lost daughter, Perdita, in “The Winter’s Tale,” opening Sunday at the Old Globe Theatre. By next year, the two hope to have an album out together--it would be Hilary James’ first, her father’s 17th. For it they’ve already recorded Elvis Costello’s “Baby Plays Around” and Amy Grant’s “If These Walls Could Speak.”

The professional relationship evolved as naturally as the daughter’s choice of a career.

Hilary James, an only child, grew up with a father who played piano professionally and a mother who sang (in amateur groups). When she began to sing, her father accompanied her. He still does--on auditions.

“I was always surrounded by music,” Hilary James recalled this week from her San Diego hotel room, where she is staying during the run of the play. “I sang in the choir when I was little, did plays all through school, went to performing arts camp in the summer. There was no question that I would pursue this career.”

“We saw that she had talent very early,” her father said on the phone from his Westchester studio. “She almost started singing before she could talk. The nursery rhymes had to be more fun for us than other parents. It was a real treat that I still remember clearly. It’s been wonderful for us to see her blossom.”

Bob James is best known as a two-time Grammy Award-winning jazz musician. His last San Diego appearance was at the Spreckels Theatre in April with his new jazz group “Fourplay.” The group’s album, also titled “Fourplay,” went gold this year. One of his Grammy Award-winning albums, “One On One,” with Earl Klugh, also went gold; his Grammy Award-winning “Double Vision” with David Sanborn went platinum.

Old Globe patrons, however, may be more familiar with his work through his scores for the Globe stage. Bob James is a longtime friend of Jack O’Brien, artistic director of the Old Globe Theatre, who is directing “The Winter’s Tale.”

James and O’Brien roomed together at the University of Michigan; O’Brien was best man at James’ wedding. James scored “The Comedy of Errors” under O’Brien’s direction 15 years ago when O’Brien was just a guest director. A dozen productions later, he is one of the Old Globe’s most frequently returning associate artists.

But, before Bob James made it as a “serious” musician, he used to write commercial jingles. Hilary James’ favorite childhood composition by him was his jingle for Tricky Doodle Duck. She still remembers the words: “Every time the whistle blows, Tricky Doodle Duck goes.”

Of course one of the reasons she liked the jingles was that, every time he did one, she got the toy that went along with it.

Hilary James made her Old Globe debut as part of the Young Globe company three years ago right after she graduated from the University of Michigan.

“I said to Jack (O’Brien), ‘I’ll do anything, I’ll sweep the floors, could I just spend the summer and observe what’s going on?”’ Hilary James recalled. “So he gave me the opportunity to do that by being in the Young Globe Company.”

Her first play was “Romeo and Juliet” in which she played “third sword carrier from the left,” as she puts it. Adrian Hall, who directed “Measure for Measure” at the Globe, cast her as Juliet, Claudio’s pregnant love. Her breakthrough role came two years ago in Amanda McBroom’s “Heartbeats” at the Cassius Carter Centre Stage. She has since done the Off Broadway revival of “Chess” and a tour of “The Fantasticks” in Japan.

She’s also continued with “Heartbeats” at the Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota and most recently at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn. Hilary James believes “Heartbeats” eventually will make it to New York.

The last time Hilary James sang one of her father’s compositions at the Old Globe was in “The Merchant of Venice.” She wasn’t in the show, but a recording of her voice was. Her father had her record the demo tape for O’Brien--O’Brien decided he liked both the song and the singer.

“The Winter’s Tale” is a story about love lost in youth and rediscovered in maturity. A young, jealous king abandons his infant daughter and loses his wife when he assumes that the child is not his. Years later, he is reunited with his loved ones. Hilary James plays the grown daughter.

“It’s a great part,” she said. “All you have to do is show up, and people like you because they’ve spent the first act talking about you.”

It’s one part she didn’t have to audition for.

“Jack just called and offered it to me in the spring. He said I was the first person who came into his head. I think it’s a good role for me. Every now and then you come on a role that plays on some of the things that are right with your essence. And that’s fun. I think she’s a happy, fun person and a light person, and she brings the sunlight into the show. I think I’m a happy, upbeat kind of person. It’s been a real pleasure. You haven’t worked at the Globe until you’ve worked on the mainstage with Jack.”

Bob James, who plans to arrive in San Diego to catch tonight’s preview, said that writing for his daughter has made his job easier.

“It’s much easier to write for her because I know what her strengths are. She’s got a very big range. She’s great in her high register, so in her male-female duet, I have her in the upper register. It’s a nice way to set off that song.”

PROGRAM NOTES: They have a show, dates and tickets sold, now the Old Globe finally has a cast for “Forever Plaid,” opening Nov. 13. Paul Binotto, Gregory Jbara, Neil Nash and Michael Winther will star. The foursome are now performing the show Off Broadway and have also done it in Tokyo, Washington D.C. and in command performances at the White House and in Kennebunkport, Me. for President and Mrs. Bush. Call 239-2255. . . .

“Latins Anonymous,” which opens Jan. 20 at the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Lyceum Stage, will offer a one-hour preview of coming attractions Monday as part of a San Diego Rep benefit hosted by Rubio’s. The benefit begins with “Latins Anonymous” at the Lyceum Space and continues at Rubio’s new downtown location at 901 4th Ave. Tickets are $25 per person. Call 231-3586. . . .

Three organizations dedicated to helping the disabled will join forces to put on a variety show Saturday at the Carlsbad Cultural Arts Center. The Performing Arts Theatre for the Handicapped, Starmakers and the Deaf Education & Arts Foundation will feature legless dancer Michael Ross, wheelchair tenor Patrick Biggs and singer Lahna Strong. The show, which will be interpreted for the hearing-impaired, will be presented at 3557 Monroe St. in Carlsbad. Call 726-2250. . . .

Sledgehammer Theatre will have a Pay What You Can performance of its upcoming production of “The Saint Plays” Sunday at 8 p.m. Tickets for tonight’s and Friday’s preview performances are $2.99. The show opens Saturday. Call 544-1484. . . .

The 23-member cast of “Tommy” will be singing the national anthem at the Padres vs. Dodgers game at Jack Murphy Stadium Monday. . . .

“A Feast of Poetry,” an evening of poetry and desserts, will benefit Lamb’s Players Theatre Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Lyceum Space in Horton Plaza. Call 474-4542. . . .

The Poway Center for the Performing Arts will feature “Gershwin by Request” Oct. 2, Beachfront Property and The Four Freshman Oct. 17, Cellist Carlos Prieto Oct. 25, William Windom in the one-man show, “Thurber,” Nov. 21, the Nebraska Theatre Caravan’s “A Christmas Carol” Dec. 19-20, “The Great Mozart Hunt” Jan. 30, Hal Roach Feb. 7, Judy Collins Feb. 27, Ballet Chicago March 22, High Country April 3 and Karpotok and the Hungarian Folk Ensemble April 24. Call 748-0505. . . .

The Fritz Theatre will present two midnight shows of “Sexual Perversity in Chicago” Friday and Saturday, offering free coffee and condoms with the price of admission “to keep the Gaslamp clean and sober during Street Scene,” says artistic director Duane Daniels. Call 233-7505.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

Magical Storyteller

David Cale, a magical storyteller, brings his latest creation, “Somebody Else’s House” to Sushi Performance Gallery. Cale doesn’t go in for flashy effects, but he has entranced local audiences with the poignant, wry details in previous successes at Sushi, such as “Redthroats” and “Small Stories With Private Parts.”

“Somebody Else’s House,” a work-in-progress, is a series of monologues about 10 men and women living in a single-room-occupancy hotel in London. Performances begin tonight and continue at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays through Sept. 27. Tickets are $8-$12. At 852 8th Ave., San Diego, 235-8466.