Wainwright Has the Romantic Touch

If Creed has struck gold singing with arms wide open, Rufus Wainwright is mining another rich vein by opening his heart.

His sophomore album may be titled “Poses,” but in his show Wednesday at the House of Blues in Anaheim, the singer-songwriter’s unabashed emotionalism never felt less than genuine, often eliciting rapturous shrieks from the late teens and early twentysomethings who are his core audience.

Wainwright’s intensely theatrical music is romantic with a capital R, an often captivating fusion of early 20th century cabaret and melodious pop-rock infused in the sense and sensibility of 18th and 19th century European literature. He’d be a first-round pick to score the next Jane Austen novel that goes to the big screen.

He leaned heavily on material from “Poses,” in which he’s backed off a lot from the ultra-dramatic arrangements of his 1998 debut album. Wainwright delivered half a dozen songs from “Poses” before turning to tunes he’s contributed to recent films--versions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” from “Shrek” and the Beatles’ “Across the Universe” from “I Am Sam”-- along with a handful of songs from his acclaimed first album.

The impression of a naif alone, adrift and yearning for human contact, connects his current and earlier work. He also displayed a sense of whimsy--though not the same love for sharp satire and irony--evidently inherited from his dad, singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, as well as a capacity for unadulterated emotion like that of his singer-songwriter mother, Kate McGarrigle.

There’s probably more McGarrigle than Wainwright in Rufus’ music, but when he does juxtapose humor and unflinching honesty, the result can be as intriguing as his performance of the upbeat yet wistful “Beauty Mark,” which conjured the image of a droopy-jowled Buster Keaton skipping and whistling down the road.

Rufus Wainwright, with Teddy Thompson, today at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, 4401 W. 8th St., L.A., 7:30 p.m. Sold out. (323) 939-1128.