Audience Cheers ‘Civil War’ Healing

“The Civil War” is a musical divided--between good intentions and faltering inventions, between distinction and sheer mundaneness.

A concert of loosely linked songs that were inspired by letters, diaries, newspaper reports, speeches and other accounts of a war that still haunts our nation, “The Civil War” opened on Broadway last year to reviews so vicious you would have thought the show had personally insulted each critic’s mother. Clearly, there were problems with the New York version, which quickly closed, and clearly, some have been resolved in the restaged touring production that makes its Southland debut with a stop through Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The bulk of the Broadway criticism centered on the generic-ness of Frank Wildhorn’s music, however, and that--except for the substitution of a couple of songs--hasn’t changed. The two dozen tunes, however rousing some of them undeniably are, all blend into a bland, bubble-gum-pop sameness.

Nevertheless, Tuesday’s opening-night audience whooped its approval after many numbers and rose--slowly--for a standing ovation, which points up what has already become an eternal division in Wildhorn’s short theatrical career: While critics turn up their noses at the pop sensibilities of this guy who penned such Top 40 staples as Whitney Houston’s “Where Do Broken Hearts Go,” the general public yells for more. Wildhorn’s “Jekyll & Hyde” and “The Scarlet Pimpernel” (the latter of which continues through June 18 at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre) have defied negative reviews to live relatively healthy lives on Broadway and on the road.

For the road, “The Civil War” has been returned to its origins as a collection of songs. Broadway’s jerry-built story lines, motorized sets and elaborate battle sequences have been shed, and the music is presented in a concert-like form. Under the new direction of Stephen Rayne, singers line the front of the stage or group on a pair of low-tech risers, their movements limited to rhythmic gestures or simple dance steps.

The band plays onstage behind them--another change from Broadway--framed between crumbling plantation columns. Projections provide an ever-changing backdrop of period photographs, handbills and newspaper articles, along with the names of key battles and the stunning numbers of deaths and injuries. Soldiers’ letters home, or recitations from speeches by Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, provide further context.

Country singer Larry Gatlin and gospel powerhouse BeBe Winans headline this engagement, but aside from being given a few of the score’s more notable numbers, they blend into the ensemble of all-purpose Northerners, Southerners and slaves.

Gatlin plays a Confederate captain, delivering a country romp in “Old Gray Coat,” an ode to his battered but trusty army-issue coat, and employing his shimmering upper register to pleasing effect on such songs as “I’ll Never Pass This Way Again,” a soldier’s heightened appreciation for life’s beauty in the face of death. Winans stokes a gospel fire in “River Jordan,” a roof-raising invocation of a better tomorrow.

One of the show’s most evocative images comes in the opening “Brother, My Brother,” as the male chorus shifts sides (and, through an inventive lighting/costuming effect, changes uniform colors) as it fills out the ranks of the opposing armies--subtly underscoring the fact that America was at war with itself.

Soon, though, the show blurs into sameness--rousing soldier numbers alternating with slave lamentations, with the occasional melancholy ballad for separated spouses or homesick fighters thrown in. Most every time “The Civil War” begins to march forward, it shoots itself in the foot--and that’s no way to commemorate the men and women, on both sides, who stood for home and honor, or to inspire their descendants to finally heal those long-ago wounds.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

* “The Civil War,” Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Today-Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Ends Sunday. $18-$52. (714) 740-7878, (213) 365-3500. Running time: 2 hours, 38 minutes.

Larry Gatlin: The Confederate Captain

BeBe Winans: The Slave

Michael Lanning: The Union Captain

John Ayres, Moses Braxton, B.J. Crosby, Mike Eldred, David Michael Felty, Steve Gannon, Gwen Jackson, Scotch Ellis Loring, Gregory Porter, Royal Reed, Roy Richardson Jr., Clay Roberts, Amy Rutberg, Carolyn Saxon, Bart Shatto, Marlayna Syms, Debra WinansEnsemble

A NETworks production. By Frank Wildhorn, Gregory Boyd and Jack Murphy; music by Wildhorn, lyrics by Murphy. Orchestrations by Kim Scharnberg. Directed by Stephen Rayne. Musical staging Peter Pucci, additional staging by Ken Roberson. Musical director Jeff Lams. Conductor Will Barrow. Musical supervisor Jason Howland. Vocal director Dave Clemmons. Set Douglas W. Schmidt. Costumes Christine Hanak. Lights Howell Binkley. Projections Wendall K. Harrington. Sound Duncan Edwards. Production stage manager Daniel L. Bello.