`MY ONE AND ONLY' STEPS LIVELY WITH GEE-WHIZ CHARM.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

It isn't exactly ``S'Wonderful,'' but the Reprise! production of ``My One and Only'' at UCLA's Freud Playhouse is ``s'well'' enough.

No one is ever going to mistake the 1983 Broadway show that originally starred Tommy Tune and Twiggy from a book by Peter Stone and Timothy S. Mayer for a real musical. ``My One and Only'' is basically a calculated excuse to belt out some terrific numbers from the George and Ira Gershwin songbook -- and for the dancers to do some nifty tap numbers.

The story line is so ludicrous -- filled with gee-whiz moments one minute, comic melodrama the next, with some mild racy humor and banal platitudes thrown in -- that it's hard to get much of a feel for the characters or the plot. That pretty much means you wait for the jokes, the dance numbers and the songs.

Yet the cast (marked by a delightfully surprising turn by 87-year-old stage veteran Betty Garrett) and production (choreographed and directed by Dan Mojica) are so winning that you don't mind waiting.

Inventiveness has become a hallmark of Reprise! shows at the small Freud Playhouse, and ``My One and Only'' is likewise cleverly staged and very colorfully costumed. Sitting before a large screen (where different images are projected) is an 11-piece band under the direction of pianist Gerald Sternbach. They are divided by a staircase down which the actors descend. This leaves little room for the leads and 12 ensemble dancers to maneuver. So, in this show, there are a lot of energetic, enthusiastic, in-a-

line, in-synch tap numbers from a group that's a lot better than you have any right to expect them to be, particularly the three ``New Rhythm Boys,'' who open the show with ``I Can't Be Bothered Now.''

The plot -- such as it is -- involves Capt. Billy Buck Chandler (Michael Gruber), who is determined to be the first man in history to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. His plan is diverted when he sets eyes on Edythe Herbert (Rachel York), who once swam the English Channel and is the star of Prince Nikki's'' (Richard Israel) water extravaganza. Billy's female mechanic, Micky (``NewsRadio's'' Vicki Lewis), pooh- poohs this, but Billy is soon off to Madam Magix's (Garrett) place for sprucing up and advice on love. The tuxedoed Garrett is wheeled in on a barber's chair for the number ``High Hat,'' and when you see her wheeled in again in the second act to offer words on ``advanced romance,'' you're not expecting her to do anything more than sing. But then she pops up and does a cool little dance number with Billy, wisecracking throughout. And when she grabbed his buns, Gruber was so surprised, he stopped in his tracks, suppressing laughter, and momentarily couldn't go on.

Gruber and the rest of the cast are all quite good. It would have been nice to have seen Lewis, who starred in ``Chicago'' on Broadway, do more singing and dancing (``Funny Face'' being her only number) instead of being mostly a comic foil. The lovely, statuesque York, though, managed to do something that was missing from the rest of ``My One and Only'': elicit some real emotion with her heartfelt version of ``How Long Has This Been Going On.''

After that, it was a charge on to the finale -- a lively dance version of ``Strike Up the Band.'' Really, how can you go wrong? You know everyone is going to be tapping their feet.

Rob Lowman [phone]

[e-mail]

MY ONE AND ONLY - Three stars

Where: Freud Playhouse, in Macgowan Hall on the UCLA campus in Westwood.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; through Sept. 17.

Tickets: $20 to $75. [phone]. reprise.org.

In a nutshell: Forget the plot, enjoy the singing and dancing.

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Michael Gruber and Rachel York star in the Reprise! production of the Gershwin musical ``My One and Only,'' at UCLA's Freud Playhouse through Sept. 17.