They Sing a Song Man’s Praises

In the production that opened at the Pasadena Playhouse on Sunday, “A Class Act” emerges as an ambitious but curiously self-destructive musical about ambition and self-destruction in the musical theater world.

It wants to be a backstage musical about the creation of the greatest backstage musical of all time, “A Chorus Line.” But it reduces director-choreographer Michael Bennett and composer Marvin Hamlisch to nasty cartoons and the creative process to near-parody.

It wants to be a revealing biography of Edward Kleban, who wrote the lyrics for “A Chorus Line,” as well as music and lyrics for a number of shows that never made it to Broadway. Though we’re told that Kleban sabotaged every opportunity he had for success after “A Chorus Line,” we never see anything of the sort but rather focus on a series of mundane love relationships, some fictional.

Most of all, “A Class Act” wants to be a celebration of Kleban’s talents as a songwriter. But after culling showstoppers from those failed Kleban projects, it gives us only one song performance that actually stops this show: Luba Mason in glorious full cry for the ballad “The Next Best Thing to Love.”

As written by Linda Kline and Lonny Price, “A Class Act” remains so obsessed with the facets and failures of Kleban’s personal and professional life that it demands a brilliant, antiheroic star performance.

Happily Robert Picardo is superb, not only deftly ironic and believably complex in the role but someone you believe could actually have written the spectacular Kleban lyrics we hear all evening.

Actually, Picardo plays not Kleban, but Kleban’s ghost: In what he calls “a Thornton Wilder return,” he materializes during his 1988 memorial service, reliving his life to prove that things were better than some of the mourners keep saying.

But Picardo’s performance makes success and failure, shows and lovers largely irrelevant: We care about him because he’s unfailingly interesting and deeply human--while no other character, however brightly performed, seems more than a collage of mannerisms, except perhaps for Lenny Wolpe’s warmly paternal sketch of Broadway conductor Lehman Engel.

However, even Picardo can’t redeem some of the dialogue, as when Kleban learns he has cancer and tells an ex-girlfriend who happens to be a cancer specialist, “You can always fix the second act,” and she replies grimly, “The second act is trouble, Ed.”

Fortunately, we’re always only a minute or two away from the next Kleban song, and under Price’s direction, blocks of light and color pierce the funereal black of James Noone’s set once those songs take over. We get mirrors, of course, for the “Chorus Line” sequences (plus a revolving platform), but the sharpest design invention may be a ghostly panorama of Broadway marquees displaying the titles of Kleban’s failed musicals a la “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway.” Call it “Ed Kleban’s Limbo.”

Costumes by Carrie Robbins and choreography by Marguerite Derricks do little more than keep the action grounded in a sense of period, but the musical direction of Steve Orich inspires faith in Kleban as a fine Broadway composer (not only a lyricist) and sustains the feeling of a major Broadway production even with an eight-member cast onstage.

However several lead women could use a Mama Rose backstage, screaming “Sing out, Louise,” just before their big numbers. Michelle Duffy, for instance, grows alarmingly anemic in what should be Mona’s sure-fire, lascivious seduction ditty, and Donna Bullock as long-suffering Lucy never deigns to sell a song but stays merely tasteful and promising when stronger options beckon.

As the overbearing Felicia, Nikki Crawford does go for broke, but she’s principally used for comic relief, while Andrew Palermo and Will Jude double Bennett and Hamlisch with roles as generic nonentity friends. Mason, as mentioned, sings magnificently as Sophie but can’t bring this amalgam character to life.

And that leaves Picardo to turn “A Class Act” into his property--acting, singing and dancing (sort of) his way to glory, making us sad he’s dead and glad he’s alive, whatever it takes.

God keep him safe and well at least until June 16. “A Class Act” may have been nominated for a 2001 Tony Award as best musical, but what we feel about it and about Edward Kleban depends completely on him.

*

“A Class Act,” Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 and 9 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Closes June 16. $29.50-$50. (626) 356-PLAY. Running time: 21/2 hours.

Robert Picardo...Ed Kleban

Lenny Wolpe...Lehman Engel

Andrew Palermo...Bobby/Michael Bennett

Will Jude...Charley/Marvin Hamlisch

Luba Mason...Sophie

Nikki Crawford...Felicia

Donna Bullock...Lucy

Michelle Duffy...Mona

By Linda Kline and Lonny Price, music and lyrics by Edward Kleban. Directed by Lonny Price. Choreography by Marguerite Derricks. Music direction: Steve Orich. Scenic design by James Noone. Costumes by Carrie Robbins. Lighting by Yael Lubetsky, based on the original lighting design by Kevin Adams. Sound by Frederick W. Boot. Production stage manager: Jill Gold.