THEATER REVIEWS : ‘Boys of Summer’Scores in the Minors

LONG BEACH — “Popcorn! Crackerjack! Get your programs here!”

Have we made a wrong turn into a baseball stadium parking lot? Is that Tommy Lasorda greeting patrons? No, it’s a cardboard cutout of the Dodgers’ manager. However, once inside Cal Rep Theatre we hear a lilting voice synonymous with the sport--Vin Scully introducing “The Boys of Summer.”

Facing us is the lineup of uniformed “boys”: catcher Roy Campanella, pitcher Carl Erskine, right fielder Carl Furillo, relief pitcher Clem Labine, second baseman Jackie Robinson. It’s opening day of the 1951 season, Scully announces, and we’re in Ebbets Field, Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Dodgers haven’t won the pennant in 75 years. But hope springs eternal. “Perhaps this is next year, “ Scully concludes.

And perhaps “The Boys of Summer” is the next great American musical. At least the raw material is plentiful in sportswriter Roger Kahn’s classic memoir. But like the 1951 team’s pennant dreams, the California Repertory Company’s high hopes collapse because of mediocre delivery.

“They lacked the kind of pitching that makes victory sure,” Kahn wrote about “Dem Bums.” The same line could be applied to Howard Burman, whose focus in both book and lyrics is so off-target he’d make the Philadelphia Phillies’ notorious “Wild Thing” Mitch Williams seem like a control freak.

Burman has shifted the focus off the field and into the locker room. Although Kahn’s book covered the 1952 and 1953 World Series teams, Burman chooses the infamous 1951 season, when the Brooklyn Dodgers lost the pennant on a ninth inning home run by Bobby Thompson.

Choosing 1951 is not a grievous mistake, of course, but it indicates a much more serious problem: Burman doesn’t understand the game of baseball. A musical about the national pastime had better play the game straight. Rather than respect the season’s fierce competitive nature--locker room antics, after all, erupt from on-field tensions--Burman reduces the season to personality sketches that dissolve into bathos.

Nor do Burman’s lyrics capture the game: “They were the boys of summer / And they played the game to their own drummer.” The music is borrowed from Mozart, Schumann, Stephen Foster, W.C. Handy--such lack of originality increases the feeling that we’ve heard this elsewhere. An energetic trio (piano, drummer, bass) accompanies the singers, but an organ would add much-needed baseball-stadium atmosphere.

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The dedicated ensemble plays the musical with athletic timing. Especially fine is Jonathan Mack as narrator Kahn. Mack’s singing is exquisite--his delivery of the sportswriter’s chiseled prose soars like poetry. George Anthony Bell is memorable as Campanella, the upbeat catcher whose contagious optimism can transform a sullen locker room into a hilarious chorus line in Martie Ramm’s best choreographed number, “Life’s So Short.” Charles Douglass is an impressive Robinson, dignified despite an inner rage at 1950s major league baseball--”a temple of white supremacy.”

Jeff Paul, Richard P. Gang and Armando Jose Duran resemble Erskine, Labine and Furillo, but their voices rarely reach professional levels. Director Ronald-Allan Lindblom imaginatively exploits the small stage, using only bats, balls and stools to simulate a locker room.

The second act transfers the players to 1972 Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. On Old Timer’s Day, Campanella, in a wheelchair, and gray-haired teammates reminisce about “lost reflexes.” The boys should also curse this “lost chance.”

“The Boys of Summer” might as well be “The Boys From Syracuse”--we’re on the same musical comedy field. But this isn’t in the same stadium as Rodgers and Hart--we’re definitely in the minor leagues.

* “The Boys of Summer,” Cal Rep Theatre, Cal State Long Beach (corner of 7th Street and West Campus Drive), Long Beach. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Saturday matinees, 2 p.m. Ends Nov. 20. $15. (310) 985-5526. Running time: 2 hours. Jonathan Mack: Roger Kahn

George Anthony Bell: Roy Campanella

Charles Douglass: Jackie Robinson Jeff Paul: Carl Erskine

Richard P. Gang: Clem Labine

Armando Jose Duran: Carl Furillo

A California Repertory Company production. Book, musical adaptation and lyrics by Howard Burman. Directed by Ronald-Allan Lindblom. Choreography: Martie Ramm. Musical direction and arrangements: Rob Woyshner. Costumes: Karen D. Mann. Set design: Corey B. Holst. Lighting: Bernard Skalka. Sound: Mark Abel.