POP MUSIC REVIEW : Kenny Rogers the Showman Takes Command at Cerritos : The singer-songwriter begins a five-night stand displaying a flair for infusing old standards with theatrical vigor.

Kenny Rogers just keeps rolling along. Opening a five-concert run at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, he was the quintessential show-biz artist, masterfully in command of both the music and his audience.

He played a couple of new originals--a sweeping love ballad titled “On a Bed of Roses” and an unnamed item for a new film, both of which reconfirmed Rogers’ ability to craft emotionally charged material.

Most of the evening, however, was devoted to such mega-hits as “Lucille,” “The Gambler” and “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town.” The only remarkable aspect of these otherwise unremarkable pieces was that Rogers could still use them to generate such theatrical vigor--a result that owed more to his powerful performing skills than to the manipulative qualities of the songs.

Best of all, he genuinely appeared to be having fun. His enthusiastic readings of “Bo Diddley” and Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me,” for example, were good enough to make one wish for a wider range of similarly unexpected, and untypical, selections.

Martina McBride, a promising young Nashville singer, opened the program with an attractive set of classic country tunes and a selection from her debut album, “The Time Has Come.”

* Kenny Rogers continues through Saturday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. Show time: 8 p.m. (310) 916-8500.