Rain Is Guaranteed at Opening of Musical : Theater: Civic Light Opera will produce ‘Singin’ in the Rain’--complete with onstage downpour and water-resistant street scenery.

While most theatrical producers dread the thought of a rainy opening night, the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities happily guarantees a downpour at its season opener next week--but only on stage.

An estimated 3,200 gallons of water will be dumped on the actors, set and stage at Aviation Auditorium, all in the name of artistic realism. The reason: The musical “Singin’ in the Rain” has come to Redondo Beach.

According to Executive Director James A. Blackman III, the production features a number of special effects, including a recycling “rain deck” and a custom-built street scene wired to an elaborate system of tubing and gutters to simulate a full downpour.

And not just any rain will do; the water in the system must be heated to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, to avoid turning the theater into a giant evaporative cooler.

“If it’s not heated it can drop the temperature in the auditorium immediately,” Blackman said. “It could be a comfortable 72 or 73 degrees, and you’d make it 55 degrees, it literally drops like a rock. (Heating the water) also keeps your actors in good health. It’s like a warm shower out there while he sings . . . (but) by the end of the song, he’s soaked to the bone.”

Since the musical’s story line revolves around the production of movies in Hollywood, actual film segments have been produced to allow the audience to view the so-called “rushes” that a producer would watch at the end of a day’s shoot. A specially constructed screen will be on stage to portray the difficulties experienced by early movie sound technicians.

“We get to comedically see them go through these stumbling moments,” Blackman said. “At one point they think they’ve got it, and then you hear the rattling of (the actress’s) necklace. Then they move the microphone to another part of her body, and you see her lips move but all you can hear is her heartbeat, really loud. Another time they put it in her corsage, and if she’s speaking to her left we can hear her clearly, but when she turns to her right--nothing. We get to see the difficulties that Hollywood had in a musical comedy setting.”

The Aviation facility itself has undergone modifications to accommodate the physical demands of the show, although Lee Andersen, Aviation facilities administrator, stressed that these were part of the city’s long-term plan to upgrade the former high school auditorium for other events.

The show’s signature rainy-street scenery was so unwieldy that it could not be brought in through the building’s loading dock. The answer was to add a 12-foot-high loading door, a task that required slicing through concrete walls and installing a new, motorized, roll-up door. Lighting and sound equipment also have been upgraded.

And with more than 30 different sets--five times as many as needed for even an elaborate production such as “Hello, Dolly!” according to Blackman--the company has had to employ nearly double the volume of counter-weighted rigging normally used to raise, lower and move scenery around during the show.

“We’ll all come out of this show with big biceps and rope burns,” Blackman joked.

Along with the behind-the-scenes additions are some other modifications that will be more visible, and welcome, to theatergoers. Air conditioning has at last been installed in the theater, along with new seats featuring ample lower-back support and padded armrests. The interior of the lobby has been repainted.

Acoustic wall panels will not be ready for installation until April, leaving exposed the present green walls. Additions to restroom facilities also are some time in the future, along with a planned new lobby that may be relocated to the west side of the building.

Anderson said there is a certain irony in opening the season in the newly renovated theater with this particular production.

“For years and years the roof leaked (in the auditorium),” she recalled. “We had water pouring in, and we were crying, singing, dancing, everything in the rain. And now we’re going to bring a huge piece of machinery on stage to make it rain.”

The Civic Light Opera will perform the musical, a 1980 stage version of the 1950s film, from Friday through April 4. The production stars Redondo Beach actress Leslie Becker, Jill Matson of Palos Verdes Estates and Michael Guarnera and Brad Aspel, both of Los Angeles.