. . . But Randy Newman Doesn’t Need to Change a Thing

That splotchy, reddish-orange shirt, fit for baseball bleacher wear, won’t do, but the curly hair is a start.

Finding a dapper white suit shouldn’t be too hard. Maybe whiten those curls while we’re at it. The mustache could take a while to grow. At least he already knows how to talk Southern. Would he choke if we had him puff on a cigar?

What we’re considering here is a make-over for Randy Newman--from well-respected but overlooked pop song craftsman to . . . a new version of that old barnstorming satirist, humorist and storyteller, Mark Twain.

One thing Newman doesn’t have to change is the quality and slant of his material. After 23 years of some of the highest-grade songwriting in pop, Newman has enough good stuff stashed under his piano bench to do a great-American-humorist turn, complete with sure-fire laugh lines, insight into America’s potential and failings, moral outrage that deflates priggish pretentiousness and scathes bigotry, and an array of memorable characters and yarns.

At the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Friday night, Newman did fine just being himself, splotchy shirt and all. The Los Angeles singer-songwriter’s 100-minute solo show was comfortable and relaxed, its 31 songs an enthralling recap of the full range of his repertoire from the comic “A Wedding in Cherokee County” to the poignant “Real Emotional Girl” to his bread-and-butter ironic monologues. Throughout, Newman connected with an audience that knew when to be responsive, when to be quietly attentive, and when to be demanding.

One of the demands was for a sampling of Newman’s work-in-progress, a musical based on the Faust legend. Newman demurred for a moment, then launched into an enthusiastic sing-and-tell synopsis of the play’s opening scenes. From the sound of it, this is going to be a farcical Faust. It features a harried God who listens amiably while Satan describes his soul-swiping seduction of a pubescent girl, “the cutest little muffin you have seen.”