Crawford Makes the Night Bloom

Michael Crawford arrived onstage Thursday at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre--appeared, actually, not unlike Venus emerging from a wave--in the midst of a startling barrage of strobe lights exploding directly into the faces of his audience.

It was brilliant effect and an appropriately dramatic entry for a performer so strongly identified with one of the most theatrical of all musical characters--the Phantom of the Opera.

Crawford, appreciating the value of that identification, was generous with his choice of songs from the celebrated musical, singing his signature “Music of the Night” plus “Think of Me” and “The Phantom of the Opera” with Dale Kristien (his Christine from the Los Angeles cast).

Yet he also seemed intent on letting his listeners--especially those unfamiliar with his long career in radio, television and films--know that his tenure as the Phantom represented just four years in his life as an all-purpose performer.

He did so by blending the music into a series of jokes and patter funny enough to make the best stand-up comic envious.

His elaborate description of an early performance of “Phantom”--in which the boat carrying Crawford and singer Sarah Brightman (then wife of “Phantom” composer Andrew Lloyd Webber) took an errant path and nearly burst into flames--had the packed house laughing uproariously.

*

Still, the heart of any Crawford performance is the remarkably supple quality of his singing voice. In an era in which pop music tenors lack the influential cachet possessed by those in the 1920s and ‘30s, he has brought luster to the sound and the timbre of the high male-vocal range.

Equally important, he uses his extraordinary vocal skills at the service of the songs. By any definition Crawford is the epitome of the singer as storyteller. While including the occasional climactic, crowd-rousing high notes, his interpretations Thursday always tried to balance the lyricism of the music with the thrust of the words.

He did so via a strikingly diverse selection of material. His opening number, “Gethsemane” (from “Jesus Christ Superstar”), emerged as a passionate statement, a superb expression of the song’s shifting emotional transitions between doubt and belief.

Easily and smoothly, Crawford moved to the Irish songs of his youth, dedicating a sweet rendering of “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen” to the grandmother who first sang to him.

Songs followed quickly, mixed with memory: a bit of “Tonight” from “West Side Story”; a stirring march through “Before the Parade Passes By” in recollection of his role in the movie “Hello, Dolly!”; a nod to Stephen Sondheim with “Being Alive” from “Company”; Lloyd Webber’s “Love Changes Everything” from “Aspects of Love.”

Occasionally, unable to resist a humorous line, he balanced the meaning of a tune with his own recollections. A romantic rendering of “When I Fall in Love” triggered his remembrance of what it was like when he discovered love as a teenager. (“Perhaps what I really should have sung,” he noted, “was Jerry Lee Lewis’ ‘Great Balls of Fire’!”)

*

What emerged from the music and humor, from the stirring duets with Kristien, from the rich-textured support of his orchestra and the brilliantly atmospheric lighting, was a portrait of a warm, unaffected artist who genuinely appeared to want to connect with his audience.

Crawford worked hard and laid his talent on the line with every number. More important, he did so with a humility and sincerity that made it possible for his listeners to respond to him, not only as a performer, but also as a genuinely likable person.

Guitarist David Arkenstone opened the program, which will be repeated Sunday night at the Hollywood Bowl.