SISTERS SLEAZE : Blanch If You Will, But the DuBois Act Is Pure Orange County

It’s the classic show biz tale: performers forced to choose between chances at individual stardom and the group’s struggle for fame.

The DuBois sisters--a singing quartet--have been playing the lounge at Reuben’s in Santa Ana for 10 years. Suddenly, they’re approached individually by agents dangling hot prospects before them. Imagine, going solo at the Velvet Turtle or the Bowl. Or grabbing the spotlight in dinner theater or at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Hey, a girl’s gotta dream!

That’s the scenario let loose in, “Ahhh, Those Lounge Swingin’ DuBois Sisters,” a musical comedy set in Orange County.

Starring Lauri Johnson, Dee Dee Hanson, LizAnne (she uses only a single name) and Anji Limon--Orange Countians, all--as, respectively, Lillian, Vivian, Adrian and Marian DuBois, the revue opens Saturday in the Century High School theater in Santa Ana.

More or less rated R--or at least PG-13--it’s from the producing wing of the local comedy troupe, the Orange County Crazies. In fact, it’s a spinoff of an earlier Crazies show, “It’s Not Easy Bein’ Orange,” which introduced the “sisters” in November, 1990.

“They were immediate show-stoppers,” recalls Cherie Kerr, the Crazies’/DuBoises’ producer and artistic director. Indeed, the tacky, campy, bickering quartet--which specializes in singing requested song titles in requested musical styles--was initially featured in the revue’s first act. But after proving popular, they were moved toward the show’s end--better to keep the audience waiting.

Their appeal?

Hanson chalks it up to balance. “It’s like in a marriage: The sisters, who are each so different, help to balance each other.”

Says Johnson: “They love as well as tolerate each other. There’s such a dependency there, they feed off each other.”

Adds Limon: “People look at us and say, ‘Sisters’? That’s part of it. Also, we’re no ordinary lounge act.”

“You look at ‘em and you gotta love ‘em. They’re trying so darn hard,” says LizAnne, adding, “You don’t expect much from them, but, you get a lot .”

There’s no denying the musical lengths to which the DuBois sisters will go to try to please. Among the audience requests they filled during their inaugural appearance with “It’s Not Easy Bein’ Orange”: “Waltzing Matilda” in punk rock; “O, Holy Night” a la Madonna; “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” a la Janis Joplin; “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window” in opera; “The Girl from Ipanema” in country-Western.

As to who the DuBois and the women behind them are, consider the following resumes:

* Lillian (Johnson, 41), who’s the oldest, was classically trained. As such, she aspired to follow in the footsteps--and high notes--of the likes of Beverly Sills.

“She thought she was going to sing at the Met. But she never got out of Orange County,” Johnson says.

Still, Lillian stretches her chops by delivering songs in operatic style to the lounge crowd. Along with her vocal range, she’s set apart by her fashion sense, which includes a fondness for royal blue spandex.

Johnson studied voice with her mother, Annette Warren-Smith, a veteran of Broadway and New York night clubs and the singing voice for non-singing movie musical stars, including Ava Gardner in “Show Boat” (1951) and Lucille Ball in “Fancy Pants” (1950).

Johnson’s credits include voice-over work in animated series such as “The Jetsons.” She also provides the voice for one of the crooning cubs at Disneyland’s “Country Bear Playhouse.” She, her husband and 4 1/2-year-old daughter (“a budding star” who has already gone on several commercial auditions) make their home in Garden Grove.

* Vivian (the “35something” Hanson) is a dingy blonde whose “major goal” in life--aside from being a star--is to have bigger breasts.

“The bleach has sunk into her brain,” Hanson admits. “She doesn’t want to age. She thinks bigger boobs is what it’s all about.” Songwise, Vivian generally opts for jazz and blues.

An account executive (and sometimes entertainer) for an Orange entertainment company (which does company picnics, catered affairs, etc.), Hanson says she’s sung in every job she’s had. A former real estate agent and loan officer, she recalls once startling a homeowner by singing out, “Pardon Me, Maam, Have You Been Thinking About Selling?” to the tune of “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.”

Hanson, who does a singing/stand-up act that includes impressions of celebrities such as Joan Rivers, grew up in Huntington Beach and attended Cal State Fullerton, where she appeared in theater productions. She lives with her husband in Orange.

* Adrian (LizAnne, 32) is the group’s tough cookie. She’s aggressive, sarcastic and caustic; not surprisingly, she’s also got a chip on her shoulder.

“She’s easy to make fun of. She doesn’t have a boyfriend. She’s overweight,” LizAnne explains. But if her capacity to hurt other people’s feelings makes her unpleasant to be around, she also longs to be liked--and loved. Adrian’s song styles seem to fit her anger: She belts out rock ‘n’ roll, heavy metal and punk. She also does country-Western.

LizAnne, who lives in Anaheim, has known Kerr for 13 years and was the first member of the Crazies. A manager of a fast-food restaurant in Bellflower, she grew up in Huntington Beach and got her comedic start doing stand-up routines in 1980 at comedy clubs. She says it was during her local one-woman show earlier this year that she learned that improvisation, rather than stand-up, was her forte. (Called “LizAnne Live . . . Alone at Last,” it included comedy skits and celebrity impressions she shaped with Kerr.)

Recalls LizAnne: “On the second night (of her show), everything went wrong. The lights went dead. The video we were using wouldn’t work. I had to fake it--just shoot the bull with the audience. And it worked . For me, that was my turning point.”

Another turning point: being asked to be a DuBois. “I had never, ever sung before,” says LizAnne, who now takes singing lessons.

* Marian (Limon, 30), the youngest DuBois, aspires to be another Janet Jackson or Paula Abdul. A little hipper than the others, she sings rap, reggae, soul and R&B;, and she likes to wear revealing clothes--but not at the expense of comfort. She wears pajama bottoms with her teddy. Further distinguishing Marian from her siblings: She’s black.

A customer service representative for an eye and skin-care company in Irvine, Limon grew up in Hollywood and Southeast Los Angeles, relocating to Orange County about 10 years ago. “Now I consider myself an Orange County girl,” says Limon, whose ethnic and racial mix includes Mexican, Danish, black and Portuguese (“my ancestors didn’t behave themselves at all”). The Huntington Beach resident has done stand-up at local clubs.

All four of the performers are members of the Crazies, which Kerr founded in early 1990 after several efforts to launch a local comedy troupe.

Kerr, 47, who runs a Huntington Beach public relations firm, is a former member of the Groundlings, the Los Angeles improvisational comedy troupe that helped launch the careers of Laraine Newman, Paul Reuben (aka Pee-wee Herman), Pat Morita and Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson.

Since their debut, the Crazies have racked up a solid following--”it’s not just our parents who are coming,” quips Kerr--and four revues, including “This Is Orange County,” “Behind the Orange Curtain,” “It’s Not Easy Bein’ Orange” and “Orange on a Hot Tin Roof.” On the horizon is “Don’t Cry for Me, Orangentina,” opening in late September.

Kerr says the DuBoises’ “spinoff” wasn’t planned--”it just evolved.”

“Since audiences liked them so much, it seemed only natural to explore them further,” Kerr says. “To see where they came from, and how they lived.”

And so, “Ahhh, Those Lounge Swingin’ DuBois Sisters” will take audiences into the sisters’ double-wide mobile home in Stanton. And into their professional travails, instigated by offers from a quartet of sleazy agents. As played by Ron Ruhman, Jon Cianci, Ron McCaw and Randall Dodge, they’re the kind of guys who still haven’t gotten the word that lots of gold chains make a negative fashion statement.

Because the DuBoises’ late mother (played by Gretchen Stahl) appears in many of the scenes (though her girls can’t see or hear her), audiences will also be privy to the sisters’ family background--including the discovery of who their fathers were--as well as their mother’s trampy past. A screen extra who slept with everyone--without making it to the top--she met her demise when she fell off the back of a big rig and was dragged by her scarf from Mission Viejo to Buena Park.

Featuring eight original songs, ranging from “Two More Feet (and a Mirror of My Own)” --about the woes of mobile home living--to a song title that can’t be printed in a family newspaper--the play abounds in local geographical references (Kaplan’s Deli in Costa Mesa, the Humdinger bar in Garden Grove, the Velvet Turtle in El Toro, the Westminster Bowling Alley) and digs at the Orange County lifestyle.

Though Kerr came up with the original concept for the DuBois’ show, the writing was a group effort that came about during rehearsals--and as a result of improvisation. Kerr, Johnson, Hanson, LizAnne, Limon and Stahl all share credit.

Though critical reaction to Crazies efforts has been decidedly mixed, the latest venue for the DuBois has already generated the kind of talk--and high hopes--that have kept lounge acts like the DuBois plugging away for years.

Indeed, Kerr, and the DuBois quartet, are hoping to ultimately take “the girls” on the road--to L.A. and beyond. In fact, claims Kerr, “a group of Broadway investors” has already expressed some interest.

The DuBois in the Big Apple?

“It could happen,” says Kerr, adding, “This is the kind of show that can be adapted, depending on where it’s done. You could perform it in Kansas City, and add Kansas City references. You could drop in New York references. . . . The message would still the same: It’s camp, but it still touches you. These sisters seem to hate each other, but they still stick together, trying to make it. Because the truth is, they need each other.”

What: “Ahhh, Those Lounge Swingin’ DuBois Sisters.”

When: Saturdays, June 8 through 29, at 8 p.m.

Where: The Century High School theater, 1401 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana.

Whereabouts: Take the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway to Edinger Avenue exit and go left (west). Continue about three-quarters of a mile to Grand Avenue and go right. Turn right into the parking lot.

Wherewithal: Admission is $10 in advance, $12.50 at the door. Parents should note that some material may not be suitable for youngsters.

Where to call: (714) 840-1406.