‘Puff,’ Then Magic Fireworks at the Bowl

It’s tough to be a performer at the Hollywood Bowl’s annual Fourth of July fireworks show. No matter how good the music may be, there’s always the sense that it’s merely serving as the appetizer for the feast of pyrotechnics to come.

On Friday, the initial performance in the three-night run of “From Sea to Shining Sea,” featuring Peter, Paul & Mary and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, was no exception. The segment opened with a set of music--from “Carousel,” “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Wizard of Oz,” among others--chosen by conductor John Mauceri to symbolize the coast-to-coast element of the program’s title.

Everything was played with the orchestra’s characteristic bland efficiency, well-executed but not especially gripping. And the only moment that cut through the glazed proceedings actually came between pieces, with Mauceri’s eye-opening assertion that Los Angeles was the principal music capital of the world in the 20th century. The 20th century? One wonders how that thought would play in, say, New York, London and Vienna.

Peter, Paul & Mary had no special surprises to offer, nor would it be realistic to expect any. Now a well-tuned nostalgia act, they devoted most of their set to a familiar litany that included “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” “If I Had a Hammer,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Although Mary Travers’ voice has now descended to the point where the harmonies are compressed to an often muddy dullness, the trio’s renderings, with their sheer enthusiasm for the idealism of the ‘60s, still packed plenty ofnostalgic punch.

When the fireworks arrived, they were appropriately climactic, a step up from last year’s presentation, both in intensity and sheer spectacle, and well worth the wait. But the choice of a George M. Cohan medley as accompaniment was disappointing, simply not up to the excitement level of the final dazzling segment of the more frequently used “Stars and Stripes Forever.”