THEATER REVIEW : Hollywood Gets a Mixed Revue : Strong Singers in ‘MovieMusicMania’ Play It Safe in Unlikely Array of Songs From Films

The always sincere, sometimes melodious Broadway Our Way Singers at Golden West College have decided to wander off the Great White Way and land in Hollywood for their new revue, “MovieMusicMania.”

We’ll call it “MMM,” for brevity’s sake, and the title’s only partly accurate. The show serves up music from the movies--perhaps not the ones you wanted to hear--but it’s certainly not manic.

There isn’t that kind of silliness, or nonsense, or sheer energy emitted from director David F. Anthony’s staging. The model for that kind of revue material has long been the “Forbidden Broadway” series, where farce and quick-draw staging transformed standard tunes into something completely different. (We can still remember that show’s lampooned Rex Harrison warbling “I’ve grown accustomed to this show . . . “)

This show is much more loving of its source, even if it sometimes gives short shrift to the stuff worth loving. It’s all a matter of keen, or not-so-keen, programming.

Anthony (with a hand, presumably, from musical director Nick DeGregorio) organized the 50-plus songs into four parts (called “reels” in the program), starting with “Golden Oldies,” and on through “All Time Favorites,” a Disney tribute and a finale of “Winners and More!!”.

The first section includes a tune from that un-oldie “Tootsie” (though not the Oscar-nominated “It Might Be You”), and the “Favorites” section include such things as “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” and “Springtime for Hitler” that aren’t only campy, but notable for being cult, un popular songs. Non-cult, non-popular items include a pair of songs from “Yentl,” as well as “Let the River Run” from “Working Girl.”

In fact, the categories mean less and less as the show goes on. The most recent Oscar-winning tune, “A Whole New World,” from “Aladdin,” isn’t even in the Disney section, just as other statue-laden numbers (“Baby It’s Cold Outside,” “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing”) aren’t in the “Winners and More!!” portion.

The catch-all nature of this category title explains the inclusion of songs that wouldn’t know an Oscar if they bumped into one: “With You I’m Born Again” (from “Fast Break”), “Time Warp” (from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”) and “Shout” (from “Animal House”).

These last two numbers are in the show to pump it up, which Ronald Holliday Hills does consistently with his gospel-edged voice.

A simple and wonderful way of pumping it up even more would be to include many more songs by Burt Bacharach / Hal David, certainly one of the most gifted and distinctive Hollywood song teams ever.

Even the recherche Henry Mancini deserves more time, certainly more than is given to the blander Marvin Hamlisch or trendy but derivative Alan Menken.

And where oh where are all those great MGM songs? The show begins with a short montage of clips from Judy Garland and Fred Astaire musicals and Leonard Bernstein’s “On the Town,” but we never see or hear of them again.

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Perhaps they’re being saved for “MMM II,” along with everything from “Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe” to “Unchained Melody” to “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head.” Still, the vacuum is sometimes acute.

While we’re waiting, the singers in “MMM” have come prepared for a show, even able to handily fill in for the absent, laryngitis-struck Linda May.

All are in fine fettle technically; some go further and bring characters to bear on their songs. That’s especially true with Diane Walsh’s very funny Dietrich-like “I’m Tired” and Eric Anderson’s and Valerie Morehouse’s frigid couple living “Separate Lives.”

Sometimes the cast goes for out-and-out impersonations, such as Anderson doing his loose-limbed best Groucho bit in a Marx Brothers medley (without the other Marxes) or--even better--as a camp, hairy-chested Tom Jones on “What’s New Pussycat?” Anderson also leads on a “Commitments” look-and-sound-alike on the show’s only real rocker, “Mustang Sally.”

All of this almost makes up for the lack of a credible romantic male lead--a problem in revues this critic has seen in L.A., Chicago and New York.

Anderson nicely plays the loser or jilted guy, but neither the stiff Bradford Bowen nor Calvin Coker (who uses his stolidity for laughs as Nelson Eddy on “Indian Love Call”) can sweep the gals off their feet.

Instead, Hills and Adrienne Michalle Johnson do a clinic on heating up a song on “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and “Beauty and the Beast.”

Johnson’s solos match Hill’s and Anderson’s on a Whitney Houston-ized “Over the Rainbow,” the obligatory Tina Turner turn on “Proud Mary,” and even on an otherwise vulgar, ultra-cheapo version of “Fame.”

Like the rest of the show, though, she needs to risk being more raw, to let go. It’s possible that the nice, refined backup band led by DeGregorio on tasty piano holds that rawness in check; it can hardly rock, but it silkily supports the torch songs. There’s no question, though, that “MMM” needs another kind of MMM: More Muscle in the Music.

* “MovieMusicMania,” Golden West College, Mainstage Theatre, 15744 Golden West St., Huntington Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sunday matinees, 3 p.m. Ends Aug. 22 . $10-$12. (714) 895-8378. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes. A Golden West College Summer Musical Theatre production. Directed by David F. Anthony. With Eric Anderson, Bradford Bowen, Calvin Coker, Ronald Holliday Hills, Adrienne Michalle Johnson, Linda May, Valerie Morehouse, Julie Morris, Emilee Sharp, Suzanne Vera, Diane Walsh, Sheri Whiteside. Musical director: Nick DeGregorio. Choreography: Jody Casillan. Lights: Arpad E. Petrass. Set: Charles P. Davis. Sound: Scott Steidinger. Production stage manager: Jennifer Clark.