Naughton a Velvety Crooner

Call him Mr. Smooth.

Stage star James Naughton has a velvety baritone and effortlessly cool mien that are fast making him a favorite of the East Coast night-life scene. On Saturday at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, he introduced his acclaimed cabaret show “Street of Dreams” to the Los Angeles area, and though the relatively small turnout indicated that not nearly enough people here have gotten the word yet, he left the audience near-intoxicated with romance.

Squarely built, with vigorous, salt-and-pepper good looks, Naughton can pull off the tongue-twisting, mile-a-minute country twang of the Hank Snow classic “I’ve Been Everywhere”--to uproarious whoops and applause--then turn around and casually deflate his coolness by indicating that he’s no better than the geeky pretender in the Dave Frishberg/Bob Dorough song “I’m Hip.”

A two-time Tony winner as the Philip Marlowe-like detective in “City of Angels” and the slick lawyer in “Chicago,” he invests each song with character, without coming across as actor-like. Slipping a bit of Elvis drawl into his voice, he delivered a playful rendition of the King’s hit “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” while investing a sweet gentleness in Randy Newman’s “Real Emotional Girl,” about a father’s abiding love. And, backed by a tight jazz quintet led by Rosemary Clooney’s John Oddo, he infused a bittersweet ache into the Billy Strayhorn standard “Lush Life” that was the very manifestation of lush. Somebody bring him back soon.