STAGE REVIEW : ‘SINGIN’ IN RAIN’--IT’S CUTE, BUT . . .

Why, yes, you can cobble up an acceptable stage imitation of a great old movie musical. But why would you want to?

We’re talking about “Singin’ in the Rain,” which opened at the Pantages on Wednesday night in what is said to be a better production than the Twyla Tharp version on Broadway: i.e., a better imitation of the original movie.

Could be, but that only sharpens one’s awareness that this isn’t the original movie: that these nice kids aren’t Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds; that the story is clunking forward rather than skimming along; that the production numbers have nowhere to go, physically.

Yes, there is real rain in the title number and if you narrow your eyes you may see a fellow splashing through the streets at dawn. But if you widen them, you will see an actor--Donn Simione--doing a dance number inside a fairly limited set.

Yes, “Be a Clown” has the bit where Donald O’Connor (I mean Brad Moranz) gets smacked with the board. But there’s no impact to the blow, and it doesn’t skyrocket the number into a new manic phase.

Everything’s more or less as we remembered it, but the magic is gone. The only time this “Singin’ in the Rain” seems at home in the theater is its final scene, set in a theater. Otherwise, an expert movie has been reduced to a primitive stage show, and it’s hard to see the reasoning, particularly with Gene, Debbie and Donald available at your local video store.

Sill, this “Singin’ in the Rain” did get a very nice reception from the Pantages audience on Wednesday night, and they couldn’t all have been there for the opening-night party, or the ushers wouldn’t have been guarding the lobby buffet table so zealously after the show.

So perhaps there is a market for the theatricalized MGM movie musical. (“High Society” is about to open in London.) People take comfort in the familiar, and it’s always nice to have a clean show to take the grandchildren to. Also, perhaps there’s a fascination in seeing how close the stage can come to emulating a Hollywood sound stage: real rain, real downspouts. If that’s your notion of theater, go for it.

My notion of theater is gratified by only one aspect of this show: the painted front curtain, credited to Peter Wolf Concepts. It depicts a long, palm-tree-lined boulevard snaking from HOLLYWOODLAND towards the audience. As the overture blares, the scene goes from a twinkling night vista (Thomas Skelton did the lighting) to rosy-fingered dawn. Then the curtain turns transparent and the the story begins. That’s theater, folks: the lie that invites you to see through it.

Ah, well. There is no sense being surly towards the young people employed in the show, who have the very difficult assignment of suggesting the cast of the original “Singin’ in the Rain” without exactly imitating them.

Brad Moranz makes the most individual impression, in the Donald O’Connor best-buddy role. He’s light-footed, funny and likable, and we get a sense of who he might be offstage. Likewise, Cynthia Ferrer is warm and loyal in the Debbie Reynolds role--more the woman, less the teen-ager.

Donn Simione gives the hero his own kind of good-guy breeziness, without having to emulate Gene Kelly. He sings better than Kelly did, technically. But in the dance numbers (credited now to Peter Gennaro, after the original Kelly-Stanley Donen choreography), Simione is stuck with Kelly’s moves, and they are wrong for his frame and, maybe, for his frame of mind. Anyway, he doesn’t make them his own. The leap to the lamp-post is a quotation, not an impulse.

The show’s only slander is to dear Jean Hagen, who didn’t play Lina Lamont, the idiot queen of the silents, anywhere near as shrilly as Jennifer Smith does. I don’t remember who played the director in the film, but Alan Sues is getting some very cheap laughs with him now. Lawrence Kasha staged this “Singin’ in the Rain,” which will travel to the new Orange County Performing Arts Center Dec. 23. It may sound a little less metallic there than it does at the Pantages.

‘SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN’ A stage version of the MGM musical, at the Pantages Theatre. Produced by Marvin A. Krause, Irving Siders and PACE Theatrical Group, by arrangement with Maurice Rosenfield, Lois F. Rosenfield and Cindy Pritzker, Inc. Book Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Songs Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. Director Lawrence Kasha. Choreography Peter Gennaro. Scenery Peter Wolf Concepts. Costumes Robert Fletcher. Lighting Thomas Skelton. Sound Peter J. Fitzgerald. Vocal and dance arrangements Stanley Lebowsky and Wally Harper. Music director Raymond Allen. Orchestration Larry Wilcox. Rain system by Showtech. Film sequences by Gordon Willis and Lawrence Kasha. Casting by Slater/ Willett. General manager Gary Gunas. Music coordinator John Monaco. Production supervisor Thomas P. Carr. With Lou Williford, Valerie Dowd, Jennifer Hammond, Deborah Bartlett, Elek Hartman, Alan Sues, Brad Moranz, Jennifer Smith, Donn Simione, Frank Kosik, Rick Conant, Gerry Burkhardt, Holly K. Watts, Steve Goodwillie, Cynthia Ferrer, Darryl Ferrera, Jim Kirby, George Giatrakis, Rick Conant, Campbell Martin, Kelli Barclay, Beverly Anne Britton, Newton Cole, Dana Lewis, Anne Nieman, Mark T. Owens, Erin Robbins, James Van Treuren, Joe Deer, Dan Mojica and others. Plays at 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and at 7 p.m. Sundays, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Closes Dec. 21. Tickets $17.50-$32.50. 6233 Hollywood Blvd. (213) 410-1072.