THEATER REVIEW : ‘Me and My Girl’ Unworthy of Fulfilling Light Opera Tradition : The musical is saved only by the comic energy of BK Kennelly, who plays the lead.

To say that “Me and My Girl” isn’t all it could have been is an understatement of colossal proportions.

After hyping as its season centerpiece the world premiere of “Western Star”--a new musical by Dale (“Man of La Mancha”) Wasserman--the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera was left scrambling to fill the slot when the show’s creators withdrew the production rights last August in a reported dispute over missed deadlines.

The pickings must have been slim indeed to trade the prestige of a prominent world premiere for this relentlessly undistinguished 1937 British song-and-dance vehicle with music by Noel Gay and book and lyrics by L. Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber.

Even a 1985 revival in London and on Broadway, with a revised book by Stephen Fry and Mike Ockrent, failed to establish the musical as the kind of popular recognition item that’s been the Light Opera’s traditional crowd-pleasing staple.

In a bizarre ploy to turn obscurity into an asset, Light Opera Executive Producer Paul Iannaccone asked the opening-night audience in the 900-seat Granada Theatre for a show of hands from anyone familiar with “Me and My Girl.” Tabulating the meager responses, Iannaccone proclaimed, “It looks like we’re all ‘Me and My Girl’ virgins.”

Alas, the deflowering proved a squalid, messy affair laden with regrets for lost innocence. There’s hardly an original moment in this derivative plot about a rambunctious lower-class rascal (BK Kennelly) who inherits an earldom and has to remake himself according to the aristocratic expectations of noblesse oblige.

His acculturation self-evidently demands giving up his fishmonger girlfriend (Sheri Cowart), so our hero sulks, whines and, in fit of desperation, stalks the poor girl when she tries to sever ties for his own good.

If the musical numbers, nimbly staged by director/choreographer Tony Parise and accompanied with metronome regularity by Ulise Unruh’s orchestra, fail to make a lasting impression, it’s because they don’t fulfill the primary mission of songs in a musical: to give voice to feelings and insights that can’t be expressed any other way. Here, they simply iterate what’s already been established in dialogue, without advancing the show.

Not that there’s far to go. For its single evolutionary plot element, the show flaunts its conceptual bankruptcy by attributing the girl’s transformation into a socially acceptable fair lady to an unseen professor of linguistics. Perhaps the hope is that the audience will be so pleased with itself at recognizing the allusion that it will overlook this semi-plagiarism.

It didn’t work.

The only saving grace in a very long three hours is Kennelly’s unflagging comic energy and inventiveness as he infuses the piece with satire, sight gags and physical dexterity, not unlike a musical Robin Williams in his off-the-wall zaniness. If anything defines star quality, it’s the ability to rise above mediocre material--and in this vehicle, Kennelly is given ample opportunity to shine.

Details

* WHAT: “Me and My Girl.”

* WHEN: Through May 7, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m.; matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays.

* WHERE: Granada Theatre, 1216 State St., Santa Barbara.

* HOW MUCH: $24.50-$32.50.

* CALL: For reservations or further information, call (800) 366-6064.