`VAUDEVILLE'S' HISTORY LESSON.

Byline: Daryl H. Miller Daily News Theater Critic

Here's something you wouldn't expect to see: a collection of daffy old vaudeville routines that doubles as a racial and socioeconomic history of the United States.

That's the surprise lurking behind the enigmatic title of ``My Lady Vaudeville,'' a new project by much-lauded writer-director Victoria E. Thompson (``The Triumph of Maeve,'' ``Dorothy Parker: Lady of the Corridor'') at Theatre East in Studio City.

Thompson's thesis goes something like this: Vaudeville, like America itself at the turn of the century, was a mixed bill of ethnicities and sensibilities. Irish balladeers, Jewish comics, African-American entertainers and others shared the stage - sometimes forming an amazingly complex whole, sometimes remaining impossibly dissimilar.

Thompson takes us into vaudeville auditoriums to see rollicking renditions of such songs as ``A Bird in a Gilded Cage,'' ``Hello Ma Baby,'' ``Shine on Harvest Moon'' and ``Ta! Ra! Ra! Boom de Ay!'' - then takes us backstage to observe the show-biz politics that continually threaten to reduce the performers' breezy camaraderie to raging hostility.

To tie it all together, Thompson draws upon a little-remembered piece of history: the first attempt to form an actors' union. Like Americans then and today, they must overcome differences of ethnicity and status (in this case, from grunt performer to headliner) to pull together for a common cause. It's an iffy proposition, and inevitably, prejudice makes an unbilled entrance.

Many of the vaudeville routines are wacky good fun; but the re-created ``minstrel'' routines (complete with blackface) are shockers - chock-full of stereotypes, yet surprisingly subversive.

The characters are based upon historical figures, including performers Bert Williams and Eva Tanguay.

Standouts in the large, 16-member cast include Lisa Robins as a sassy, sexy, high-energy Eva Tanguay; Harris Shore and Maaren Edvard as a twinkling-eyed philanderer and his fed-up-to-HERE wife and performing partner; John LaMotta as an affable Jewish comic and grandfather figure; and Tom Lillard as the golden-tongued unionizer George Fuller Golden. Also fine are Hilarie Thompson as a 36-year-old woman forced by her domineering mother to maintain a little-girlish persona (shades of ``Gypsy'') and David Thomas as the perpetually shunted-aside Bert Williams.

The show rambles on too long, especially as it becomes mired in the headliners' squabbles in Act 2 and the social-protest songs performed at a union fund-raiser in Act 3.

Still, this is an infinitely intriguing show; viewers can choose to enjoy it merely for its nostalgia factor, or open their minds to its richly observed social history.

THE FACTS

The show: ``My Lady Vaudeville.''

Where: Theatre East, 12655 Ventura Blvd. (above Sports Center Bowl), Studio City.

When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays; through Sept. 15.

Running time: Two hours, 55 minutes; two intermissions.

Tickets: $15, available by calling [phone].

Our rating: Three Stars.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Hilarie Thompson and David Thomas portray turn-of-th e-century performers in ``My Lady Vaudeville.''