Sins of Ruling Class in ‘Greasepaint’

Those who flee from street mimes may be well-advised to skip “The Roar of the Greasepaint . . . The Smell of the Crowd,” the vintage musical by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, now being revived--or rather, administered intensive CPR--in Long Beach.

All the heroic measures on the part of director Allison Bergman and her cast cannot breathe life into Bricusse and Newley’s recumbent book--an expressionistic parable about the evils of Britain’s class system that mingles mime with vaudeville in a highly stylized but insubstantial jumble.

Gentleman con-man Sir (Andrew Craig) engages in a never-ending, chess-like “game” with his Cockney adversary Cocky (BK Kennelly), a virtual slave to the godlike Sir’s every whim. Of course, the game is fixed, and the low-born Cocky can’t hope to compete with Sir’s breeding and guile. However, as surely as worms turn, dogs have their day, and turkeys gobble, Cocky eventually triumphs. Peripheral characters are roughly spliced into the formless collage, while a strange episode concerning the murder of a straw effigy provides meager fodder for a crisis and resolution.

In this case at least, Bricusse and Newley may not have been able to tell a story, but they could certainly pen a tune. The show’s score remains a phenomenon, with every other number a standard. Classics like “A Wonderful Day Like Today,” “Where Would You Be Without Me?,” “Look at That Face,” “Who Can I Turn To?,” “Feeling Good,” and “Nothing Can Stop Me Now” uplift the flagging action along with the audience’s spirits.

With his lithe physicality and commanding voice, Kennelly bears up this flawed vehicle by sheer effort of his considerable will and talent. Kennelly is also a gifted mime, as is Jennie Kaplan as the spunky Kid (who looks a lot like Jackie Coogan as a tyke). Add a bevy of cutely bedraggled urchins (shades of “Annie”!) to the mix and the show actually shows signs--however brief--of becoming animate.

* “The Roar of the Greasepaint . . . The Smell of the Crowd,” Studio Theater, Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. This Sunday, Jan. 15 and Jan. 22, 2 p.m. Dark Dec. 18-Jan. 5. Ends Jan. 28. $15. (310) 494-1616. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.