Saddleback Misses the Bacharach Groove

The Orange County arrival of the New York-hatched revue of songs by composer Burt Bacharach and his longtime former lyricist colleague Hal David, “Back to Bacharach and David,” at Saddleback College’s Cabaret Theatre, would seem perfectly timed.

After all, it’s Austin Powers time, baby, and as any aficionado of London’s grooviest spy knows, Bacharach is an essential part of the Austin experience.

With Bacharach’s cameo appearance (joined by his now-regular collaborator Elvis Costello) in “The Spy Who Shagged Me,” and the movie’s $60-plus-million draw this past week, it’s possible that more people have seen and heard Bacharach in one concentrated span of time that at any point in the brilliant tunesmith’s brilliant career.

Though the time is ripe for Bacharach--and there should never, ever be a time when he’s not--it has gone pretty much to seed for this version of the revue, originally conceived by Steve Gunderson and Kathy Najimy.

At once white-bread, starchy, stiff and stale, this show, put together by director Diane King Vann (doubling as musical director), is something that could please only Bacharach and David’s enemies--certainly not their friends.

Right off, things are wrong, starting with the look of Wally Huntoon’s set, an ultra-suburban, two-story home’s spotless living room, in which the ensemble quintet of Taylor Baugh, Marc Marger, Mindi Metzger, Adam Tait and Samantha Wynn greet one another as if they’re at a dinner party in, well, Mission Viejo.

No offense against Saddleback’s hometown (this writer, please note, is a Mission Viejo High School alum), but neither it nor any other suburb is the right setting for Bacharach-David.

If there must be a specific setting--and music revues are generally better off not being so specific--let it be a home in the Hollywood Hills or a Manhattan penthouse, just the place to capture the pair’s sophisticated spirit of adult love and disappointment.

Those themes, happily, are played out in the songs chosen by Najimy and Gunderson (who also did the original arrangements and orchestrations). We go from the ultra-sexy “The Look of Love” and the always-surprising “Trains and Boats and Planes” to the moody longing of “This Guy’s in Love with You,” the dramatic “One Less Bell to Answer” to the cynical “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” the song of choice in the new “Austin Powers.”

This structure is basically continued in Act 2, with a bit more leaning to the song team’s early pop tendencies, with “Walk On By” and “Wishin’ and Hopin’ ” (unfortunately done here by choreographer Susan Cable as a country line dance) and a mix of great obscurities and pop classics from their movie work including “What’s New, Pussycat?,” “The April Fools,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” and “Alfie,” which is on the short list of the greatest movie theme songs ever written.

So on the face of it, this should be heaven for Bacharach-David fans.

But while the Gunderson-Najimy revue has its heart in the right place, justly acknowledging that Bacharach-David represents the apotheosis of American adult pop music and the ultimate link between the Sinatra era and rock ‘n’ roll, the treatment tends to soften the songs while demanding skills that Vann’s group painfully lacks.

Gunderson’s arrangements have an alarming tendency to finish songs with neatly wrapped choral flourishes, when the songs as originally recorded by Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Tom Jones, B.J. Thomas or Costello often just dreamily fade away. (An exception are the numbers for Bacharach-David’s only musical, “Promises, Promises,” in which punchier endings were necessary.)

Moreover, the songs were almost always written for such distinctive, soulful, solo voices as Warwick’s and Franklin’s. It doesn’t benefit the songs to recast them for five-part harmonies and the like. The attempts here to gospel-ize songs, led by the vocally challenged Baugh, are embarrassing.

The only singer with real spark is Wynn, whose various touches on “I Just Have to Breathe’ and lead on “Always Something There to Remind Me” are real, while those around her feel recited and sung-by-numbers.

Deliveries as mechanical as on “Close to You” are so far from the true, syncopated Bacharach-David spirit--maintained only by the up-tempo approach of pianist and trio leader Jimmy Vann--as to blur it altogether.

While Bacharach and David wrote for golden throats, this is a show with a tin ear.

* “Back to Bacharach and David,” Saddleback College Cabaret Theatre, 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. 8:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 3:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. (949) 582-4656. $19-$22. Ends Aug. 8. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

A Saddleback Civic Light Opera production of the musical revue conceived by Steve Gunderson and Kathy Najimy. Music by Burt Bacharach. Lyrics by Hal David. Orchestrations and arrangements: Gunderson. Director/musical director: Diane King Vann. With Taylor Baugh, Marc Marger, Mindi Metzger, Adam Tait and Samantha Wynn. Set: Wally Huntoon. Lights: Kevin Cook. Costumes: Diane Lewis. Choreography: Susan Cable.

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Pacific Playwrights Festival

Today

1 p.m.: Richard Greenberg’s “Everett Beekin” (staged reading, Mainstage)

3 p.m.: Marlane Meyer’s “The Mystery of Attraction” (staged reading, Mainstage)

8 p.m.: Jose Rivera’s “References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot” (workshop production, Second Stage)

Saturday

10 a.m.: Donald Margulies’ “God of Vengeance” (staged reading, Mainstage)

2:30 p.m.: Nicky Silver’s “The Altruists” (staged reading, Mainstage)

8 p.m.: Rogelio Martinez’s “Illuminating Veronica” (workshop production, Second Stage)

Sunday

11 a.m.: Tom Donaghy “The Beginning of August” (staged reading, Mainstage)

2:30 p.m.: Rogelio Martinez’s “Illuminating Veronica” (workshop production, Second Stage)

7:30 p.m.: Jose Rivera’s “References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot” (workshop production, Second Stage)

All events take place at South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Admission is $8 for readings, $18 for workshop productions. Information: (949) 708-5555.