A flirtatious ‘Boy Friend’

Sometimes escapism can be so purely escapist that you want to escape it. A case in point is “The Boy Friend,” Sandy Wilson’s loving but tame sendup of 1920s musicals, which frolicked into Southern California on Wednesday in a new revival.

The enterprise is a bit of a family affair. Directed by Julie Andrews, who made her Broadway debut in the show roughly half a century ago, this production originated at a theater in New York’s Hamptons run by Andrews’ daughter Emma Walton. The wonderfully colorful sets and costumes were concocted by Tony Walton, Andrews’ ex. (Rachel Navarro shares the costume credit.) Andrews next helmed “Boy Friend” at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn., before it embarked on a national tour.

The Goodspeed is a midsize house, and one can imagine that this modestly scaled show would play well there. However, in the vast precincts of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, where “Boy Friend” will play through Jan. 1, the production is somewhat dwarfed, despite the herculean and largely successful efforts of Andrews and choreographer John DeLuca to fill the stage with swirling movement.

Really more of a homage than the spoof it begs to be, Wilson’s bagatelle is set in and around the Villa Caprice, an elite girls academy on the French Riviera run by the sultry Madame Dubonnet (Nancy Hess).

The cackling gaggle of young English females who are being “finished” at the school is headed by ebullient Maisie (Andrea Chamberlain), already a finished femme fatale given to wild outbreaks of the Charleston with her ardent American admirer, Bobby Van Husen (sure-footed Rick Faugno). But the crux of the story concerns pretty Polly Browne (Jessica Grove), daughter of fabulously wealthy widower Percival Browne (Paul Carlin).

A poor little rich girl, Polly wants to be loved for herself, not her millions. Pretending to be a secretary, she falls hard for Tony (Sean Palmer), a lowly messenger boy. As we soon realize, Tony is actually the titled and moneyed son of Lord Brockhurst (Drew Eshelman), a philandering peer who trolls for female conquests under the disapproving nose of his overbearing wife (Darcy Pulliam).

For Polly and Tony, the rocky course of true love is smoothed by French maid Hortense (Bethe Austin), a soubrette whose expansive Gallic accent would make Maurice Chevalier sound Bostonian. Of course, by musical’s end, romance prevails, giddily and absolutely.

The talented cast is ready, willing and thoroughly able, and Andrews’ careful staging is workmanlike throughout. Still, the characters, as written, are so stock that they defy humanization. In a telling detail, Walton’s set is flanked by fake, flat loges -- painted theater seating filled with painted people. These lifeless spectators, looking down on the cardboard characters onstage, seem a statement of intent, a wry acknowledgment of the essential flimsiness of the material.

Two particular stereotypes that have not weathered well are the lecherous Lord Brockhurst and Dulcie (Kirsten Wyatt), a cutesy-poopsy schoolgirl moppet who acts all of 10. Brockhurst’s dalliance with Dulcie at a costume ball now seems strikingly creepy and could have benefited from a more sophisticated and updated interpretation.

If Wilson’s characters are a bit hoary, his tunes are ever-fresh and are freshly rendered here by music director F. Wade Russo. As anyone familiar with this material will affirm, hummable standards such as “I Could Be Happy With You” and “Won’t You Charleston With Me?” are likely to stick in the memory for several decades.

Those with a warm spot for the show, or people in a particularly nostalgic mood, may find the sharply executed folderol heartwarming. But in an age of “Lion King” spectacle and “Urinetown” grittiness, this petite divertissement is merely pleasant -- and in the long run, that may not be quite enough.

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‘The Boy Friend’

Where: Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 8 p.m. today and Tuesday through Friday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 8 p.m. Dec. 31; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday and Jan. 1

Ends: Jan. 1

Price: $20 to $65

Contact: (714) 556-2787 or www.ocpac.org

Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes