STAGE REVIEW : ‘St. Louis’ Meets Cerritos Arts Center

With a musical, sometimes you come out humming the songs and sometimes the sets. But with “Meet Me in St. Louis” at the striking new Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, you come out humming the theater.

Wot a place. Pardon the detour, but this new space is hard to ignore. It is capable, quick as a wink, of transforming itself from arena to concert hall, to cozy lyric or dramatic theater, and happens to be nestled in a handsome $60-million complex of wood, concrete and stone that manages to avoid most of the pretensions such a price tag implies.

The result of that flexibility is a wide range of programming, from Frank Sinatra (who inaugurated the theater last week) to Isaac Stern; from Mikhail Baryshnikov to Ballet Chicago; from the Peking Acrobats to . . . well, “Meet Me in St. Louis.”

Which brings up a paradox. The touring Troika Organization production on view here is cut-rate and non-union. That does not mean that the actors work any less hard, but it does mean we get summer stock instead of blue chip.

Not that any stage version of “Meet Me in St. Louis” was ever much of a musical. Drawn from the 1944 MGM movie (which owed a lot of its success to the presence of Judy Garland) and from the original Sally Benson stories on which the film was based, the 1989 Broadway edition of “St. Louis” relied heavily on theatrical hoodwinking. It had impressive do-everything sets, rich costumes and elaborate production numbers, and banked on America’s fondness for the Hugh Martin/Ralph Blane score--such popular items as “The Boy Next Door,” “The Trolley Song,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and, of course, the title song.

However, like the new Cerritos theater, “Meet Me in St. Louis” the Musical seems capable of many configurations. The 1991 touring production with Debby Boone was a variant of the 1989 Broadway version. And the current non-union show in Cerritos is a variant of the other two. Songs have been reshuffled, eliminated and/or replaced by other songs, which doesn’t alter one’s opinion of the show as a minor blip in musical theater annals.

The Benson stories have had the juice bleached out of them. Cute is no substitute for quirk, and the Hugh Wheeler book is a bland account of a turn-of-the-century St. Louis family’s trivial upheavals. An entire evening of fretting over boys next door isn’t much of a plot. And to go or not to go to New York is hardly a quandary.

So the show relies on its music and its idealized nostalgia. To say this Troika production is not altogether meritless is to be grateful for small favors. It is more engaging than the listless one two years ago at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, but that’s like saying that one star out of a possible four is better than none.

Brian MacDevitt’s lights enhance the rumpled will-travel sets by James Bush that consist of one gingerbread house and some tired backdrops. Costumes by Dean Brown are self-respecting and William Wesbrooks’ direction, after a sluggish start, gets the traffic rolling at an escalating clip.

Much the same can be said for Daniel Pelzig’s choreography, which is brisk and even clever (in the Christmas Ball scene) but not particularly distinguished. And musical director John Mezzio, with the help of synthesizers, makes his eight-piece orchestra sound much fuller than it is.

Jennifer Lee Dickison’s Esther Smith carries the show with a lively performance. However, the balance of the young company has a harder time making the artificiality of this sanitized story stick, but it manages occasional moments (the Christmas Ball scene again), with Christopher Sieber turning in an engaging John Truitt, and both he and Dickison delivering palatable renditions of “You Are for Loving” and “The Girl Next Door.”

For all of the new theater’s state-of-the-art appearances, it does not elude an old problem. The sound by George Huckins is badly overamplified and/or muffled. It may be Huckins’ and the production company’s responsibility, but the theater shares in it too.

Like it or not, it will be judged by its quality control, which includes what it chooses to present. If it chooses to present musical theater, it will have to do better than this.

* “Meet Me in St. Louis,” Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Towne Center Drive, Cerritos. Tonight-Sunday, 8 p.m.; matinees Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Sunday. $25-$30; (310)916-8500, (800) 300-4345. Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes.

Emily Houck: Tootie Smith

Robert Miller: Mortorman

Kathryn Rosettie: Katie

Robb McKindles: Lon Smith

Albert Parker: Grandpa Prophater

Kay Ogden: Mrs. Smith

Jennifer Lee Dickison: Esther Smith

Terry Kaye: Agnes Smith

Adam Graham: Alonzo Smith

Elizabeth Lambert: Rosie Smith

Christopher Sieber: John Truitt

Pete Tyger: Warren Sheffield

Douglas Moore: Chris Weikel

Valerie J. Smith: Ida Boothby

Elizabeth Byrd: Lucille Ballard

Scott W. Jackson: Clinton Badger

Thomas Johnson: Derwood Drummond

A Troika Organization presentation in association with Music Theatre Associates. Director William Wesbrooks. Book Hugh Wheeler, based on Sally Benson’s “The Kensington Stories” and the MGM movie. Music and lyrics Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane. Sets James Bush. Lights Brian MacDevitt. Costumes Dean Brown. Wigs and hair Bernie Ardia. Sound George Huckins. Choreography Daniel Pelzig. Musical direction John Mezzio. Orchestrations/arrangements Thomas W. Whiddon. Technical direction John Kuehn. Production stage manager Michelle Yates.