Staging a Joint Venture : Director Pamela Hall is hoping that her newest project--’Starting Here, Starting Now,’ being produced in Van Nuys by her spouse--will prove as successful as her first two efforts.

Pamela Hall is going for three out of three.

In 1990, her production of the revue “Broadway Sings Out” became a hit, running for two years at the West End Playhouse in Van Nuys. In 1992, she directed the novelty-song revue, “Crazy Words, Crazy Tunes,” at the Center Stage; now transferred to the West End, the critically acclaimed show is still going strong.

On Saturday, Hall’s newest project, the Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire revue “Starting Here, Starting Now,” opens at the Van Nuys theater.

“We started talking about this show five years ago,” says Hall, whose husband of 24 years, Edmund Gaynes, runs the West End and is producing this show. Rights restrictions kept the production on the back burner, but, Hall says, she’s been a huge fan of the material since hearing the cast album 15 years ago. “I love David Shire’s music. He has a real jazz feel to his Broadway music,” she says. “And it also has this fabulous partnering with Maltby.”

Three singers and one musician perform the show’s 28 songs. “The theme is looking for the significant other,” Hall explains, “finding / not finding them, thinking you’ve found them--then losing them. But it’s done with humor, not slashing wrists. Then in the second act, you get to the ballads: ‘Starting Here, Starting Now,’ ‘Autumn’ and ‘What About Today?,’ all songs Barbra Streisand made famous.”

Born in Champagne, Ill., Hall moved to New York at 18.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” she says. “I started working within a year--off-Broadway, then Broadway, ingenues in lots of things.” Her Broadway credits include “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “1776,” “Dear World” and 1973’s starry “Sondheim: A Musical Tribute,” which was recently re-released on CD. In 1975, she and Gaynes headed West; in 1988, she made her directorial debut with “Lovesong” at the Hidden Hills Playhouse.

A mother of two girls, Hall credits her directing confidence to her years as a stage actor.

“It’s my genre,” she says earnestly. “I’ve been there. I’ve been in original Broadway shows; I’ve watched people create them. I love doing original shows, and ‘Starting Here, Starting Now’ is like doing one: It’s so loosely put together, I can bend it, move it, take liberties with it. Of course, I spent 10 years working with some of the very best people. By the time you’ve put in that kind of apprenticeship--well, it’s a great training.”

Her husband offers a different point of view. “I’ve been an actor since I was 8,” he says dryly. “I worked in six Broadway shows. I worked with Elia Kazan, Frank Loesser, Edward Albee, George Abbott . . . and I have no knack for directing. It’s a rare gift. If Pamela weren’t the best director, I’d fire her.”

WHERE AND WHEN

What: “Starting Here, Starting Now.”

Location: West End Playhouse, 7446 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys.

Hours: 9 p.m. Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Indefinitely.

Price: $17.50 to $19.50.

Call: (818) 904-0444.