For the first time in quite a while, it's the season of the musical.

Byline: FRED CRAFTS The Register-Guard

If the actors you run into these days are singing a happy tune, maybe it's because they are in one the many local musicals getting ready for their summer openings. Altogether, seven musicals are currently being rehearsed for summer showings.

That's welcome news to musical comedy aficionados who haven't had all that much to choose from locally since the Eugene Festival of Musical Theatre quit doing its summer extravaganzas in 1994.

Now, all of a sudden, it seems like everybody's doing musicals- well, at least Actors Cabaret of Eugene, Oregon Festival of American Music, Very Little Theatre, Lane Community College and Spotlight Theatre.

Eugene's biggest musical comedy fans, Jim Roberts and Joe Zingo, have done a yeoman's job in keeping the genre going with their Eugene Mainstage and Actors Cabaret of Eugene companies. After three summer productions of "Hair," the duo turned to "Leader of the Pack" and "Putting It Together" last summer.

This summer, the ACE crew has come up with a sure-fire warm weather winner, the Oregon premiere of the recent Broadway mega-hit "Jekyll & Hyde."

Although a national touring company production played here two seasons ago, the amateur production rights were just released. Actors Cabaret will be one of the first community companies in the country to do the show.

The busy producers also are preparing a youth production of "Bugsy Malone, Jr."

After many dark summers, the lights will be on again at Lane Community College, which once feasted on a long run of summer productions directed by Ed Ragozzino. The college's large main stage hasn't had a musical on it since "A Chorus Line" in May 1995, and it hasn't been used for a summer musical since "Snoopy" in 1984.

"West Side Story" is the first show in what faculty members Ron Bertucci and Jim Greenwood, the producing team, intend to be the start of a new tradition at LCC.

Also getting back into the musical comedy business is the Oregon Festival of American Music, which did George Gershwin's "Of Thee I Sing" and "Oh Boy!" in 1996, then stopped. This year, the festival will place two more Gershwin musicals on the boards: an updated "Crazy for You" and the original "Lady, Be Good."

If that weren't enough, the Very Little Theatre is putting its adult cast to work on "Working," while the Spotlight Theatre of Pleasant Hill is unleashing a teen-age cast in "Grease."

Here's the full schedule:

Opening first will be the Actors Cabaret of Eugene's production of "Jekyll & Hyde" (July 12-Aug. 3), directed by Joe Zingo with Don Kelley as Jekyll and Kevin Boling as Hyde.

"Jekyll & Hyde" is one of two musicals this summer at ACE; the other is "Bugsy Malone Jr.," presented by ACE's Youth Academy (July 20-Aug. 4).

Also opening July 12 will be "West Side Story" on Lane Community College's main stage. The Sharks and Jets will be going at it July 12-20.

Spotlight Theatre's production of "Grease," the classic about the trials and thrills of being a teen-ager in the 1950s, will play July 15-16 at the McDonald Theatre and July 16-20 on its home boards at Spotlight Theatre.

For the Oregon Festival of American Music, George Gershwin's "Girl Crazy" has been updated and transformed into "Crazy for You" (Aug. 3-10). Directed by the Willamette Repertory Theatre's Kirk Boyd on the Hult Center's Silva Concert Hall stage, the show will star Shirley Sachs and William Hulings.

The festival's Northwest Academy of Musical Theater will show off its teen-age actors in "Lady, Be Good' (Aug. 6-7), an authentic old-time Gershwin show. The teen-age ensemble from the Northwest Academy of Musical Theatre camp will be directed by Jack Watson, in the Hult Center's Soreng Theatre.

Melina Neal will direct Stephen Schwartz's "Working," a musical based on the best-selling book by Studs Terkel, at the Very Little Theatre (Aug. 9-31).