One-Man Show Pays Tribute to Lanza

In his one-man show “The Mario Lanza Story” at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, Charles GaVoian displays more than a touch of hammake that prosciutto. In fact, GaVoian’s over-the-top, scenery-chewing quality, combined with a rafter-rattling tenor, make him a natural to portray Lanza, the singing heartthrob of the late 1940s and 1950s whose personal life was as operatic in scale as his screen persona.

Lanza could never pass up a shot of whiskey, a pretty face, or a plate of pasta. In fact, it was while he was checked into an Italian weight-reduction clinic that he died of obscure causes at the age of 38.

GaVoian and his director and co-author Joseph Fraley give us a tantalizing hint that Lanza could have been the victim of a mob hit, but otherwise the story is a relatively straightforward accounting of Lanza’s life, from his origins as a poor kid in Philadelphia to the zenith of his career as MGM’s most bankable musical star.

The action transpires in Lanza’s dressing room at an Italian opera house, only days before his death. Between acts, Lanza comes backstage to chat with a reporter (actually the audience), reminiscing between bites of fettuccine. Persona non grata in Hollywood because of his famous temperament, Lanza waxes optimistic about a comeback, one we are poignantly aware will never come.

Despite the clever device of having the audience assume the role of the reporter-interviewer, the autobiographical exposition is sometimes clunky. However, under Will Anderson’s musical direction, the vocally gifted GaVoian makes us feel afresh Lanza’s great artistry, and the tragedy of his brief and turbulent life.

* “The Mario Lanza Story,” Beverly Hills Playhouse, 254 S. Robertson Blvd. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends June 25. $20. (213) 721-6782. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.