THEATER REVIEWS : Despite Flaws, ‘Babes’ Is Booming With Charm : Mixing in Rodgers and Hart songs from various shows is hit and miss; otherwise, the Irvine Valley College production works.

Wisely, the program for Irvine Valley College’s Forum Theatre production of the 1937 “Babes in Arms” carries the disclaimer “based on the original by Rodgers and Hart.”

Director Ron Ellison has staged a sort of hybrid “Babes in Arms,” primarily by interspersing Rodgers and Hart songs that came from other shows, which don’t always match the slots they’re shoe-horned into.

One obvious squeeze is “The Lady Is a Tramp,” whose lyrics are way too sophisticated for the teen-age girl who sings them. Some fit, such as “Mountain Greenery,” from the team’s first show, 1925’s “Garrick Gaieties.”

It’s nice to hear these old standards, though one wonders why Ellison chose the show if he didn’t like the original as it was. He could have just done a revue of Rodgers and Hart standards.

Accepting this patch job, you wonder why Ellison, who has kept the show set in 1937, has inserted anachronistic name-dropping in lyric and dialogue: Frank Sinatra didn’t become a star until four years later, and Gregory Peck, among others mentioned, came to prominence in the late ‘40s. George Oppenheimer, who wrote the book for this show, must be spinning in his urn.

Oddly, Ellison has left intact Hart’s repeated mention of “the Roxy Music Hall.” You might have expected him to change that one, were he aware that within a few years it was renamed Radio City Music Hall.

Even accepting all of that , and notwithstanding a few really badly shaped performances, Ellison has staged a pretty charming valentine to two of the top tunesmiths of the first half of the 20th Century.

The story, later Hollywoodized into Mickey-and-Judy-find-a-barn-and-put-on-a-show, is delightful, and the Surf and Sand Summer Playhouse apprentices and their aching wish to get their own revue onstage retain their freshness.

Kent Helwig is excellent as Val, the apprentice songwriter, and Leesa Dilalio a charmer as his girlfriend, whose older brother Steve (Tom Hafner) is a boy-wonder Broadway producer.

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Helwig’s light tenor voice is just right, and Dilalio has a marvelous flair for tunes of the time. Susan Crouse’s brass-edged voice as Bunny, the veteran apprentice, also is especially suited to the material and re-creates the tone of the period exceptionally well.

Roxanne D’ascenzo as the teen-age Hollywood star engaged to Hafner’s Broadway wonder is very good at maintaining just the right edge of professional hauteur, and she warbles with just the right effect.

Hafner, an Equity guest artist, does well with his brief specialty material, but his smooth, calculated performance seems out of place amid all the youthful abandon on stage. In the supporting cast, Bart McHenry stands out in providing comic relief as Gus, also on the nose for the period musical this is.

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Several actors, however, go way beyond reasonable limits of normality, for even 1937 musicals attempted to keep their characters real: Terry Christopher, as the summer theater’s scroungy boss; Jeanette Barnes, only a sight gag as his shrewish wife; Paul Burt, as the Southern playwright whose bad play is currently on the summer boards, and L. Gionna Gordon as the Hollywood tot’s stage mother. These four haven’t been watching the believable apprentices to see how their reality makes the material sparkle.

All of the musical numbers, choreographed in period fun by Tracy Halas, under Ellison’s sprightly musical direction, are a delight, in particular the re-creation of the original stage setting of “Johnny One-Note.”

* “Babes in Arms,” Forum Theatre, Irvine Valley College, 5500 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Nov. 20. $8. (714) 559-3333. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.

Kent Helwig: Valentine White

Leesa Dilalio: Susie Ward

Roxanne D’ascenzo: Jennifer Owen

Tom Hafner: Steve Edwards

Susan Crouse: Bunny Bayon

Terry Christopher: Seymour Fleming

Jeanette Barnes: Elvira Fleming

Paul Burt: Lee Calhoun

L. Gionna Gordon: Phyllis Owen

Bart McHenry: Gus

An Irvine Valley College Forum Theatre production of the Rodgers and Hart musical. Directed by Ron Ellison. Musical direction: Ellison. Choreography: Tracy Halas. Scenic/lighting design: Jim Rynning. Costume design: Charles Castagno. Makeup design: Diane Calef. Stage manager: Bryan Lucas.