GOOD-NATURED 'SONG' HITS PLENTY OF HIGH NOTES.

Byline: Evan Henerson

Theater Critic

He's successful and steady. She's eccentric, talented and on the cusp of a promising career. They're brought together to collaborate. The attraction is immediate, and -- this being a romantic dramedy -- there's no earthly reason they shouldn't end up making beautiful music together.

Since "They're Playing Our Song" is about the partnership -- at the keyboard and in the bedroom -- of a composer and lyricist, beautiful music really is what Vernon Gersch and Sonia Walsk are after. That "Our Song" -- at the El Portal Theatre -- was inspired by the real-life partnership of its composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Carole Bayer Sager gives it a touch more interest. Eat your candy-sweet hearts out, Hugh and Drew.

Dan Mojica's production for Valley Musical Theatre has finesse and bits of inspiration at every corner. The staging is right on, and music director John Randall and his six-piece band easily locate the warmth and the tunefulness in Hamlisch's score.

For a reprise-laden, late'-70s score -- the composer's first after "A Chorus Line" -- this one's got some real gems. "Our Song" played nearly 1,100 performances on Broadway from 1979 to '81. Had they brought in VMT's Vicki Lewis among the parade of replacement Sonias, I suspect the show might have run still longer.

More often cast as the best friend/girl Friday, Lewis takes a standard-issue quirky ingenue to an entirely different level. Her layered alto, her unforced genuineness positively light up the night. Where Scott Waara's Vernon sometimes gets trapped in the breezy dismissiveness of book writer Neil Simon's repartee, Lewis encounters no such obstacles. Quite simply, she will break your heart.

Lewis' work aside, "They're Playing Our Song" is not exactly nuanced. Whatever went wrong between Hamlisch and Sager (she ended up marrying and later divorcing Burt Bacharach), Vernon and Sonia are clearly meant for each other.

The road bumps to a composer-gets-lyricist happy ending include Sonia's ties to a freshly shed ex-lover and, ultimately, a kind of personal and professional jealousy that Vernon didn't know he possessed. Idiotically, he sabotages the union, after which Sonia pours out her heart in an affecting rendition -- in a recording studio -- of their soon-to-be hit song, "I Still Believe in Love." Then she asks for a playback. "I want to hear a familiar voice."

Waara, another steady musical-theater presence in the Southland, could have tapped Vernon's smugness and insecurity more effectively. As things stand, the character goes from satisfied and love-stricken to wimpy coward with no believable bridge. He's a smooth balladeer, with the opening "Fallin' " and the still-lost-in-

love "Fill in the Words" landing like down cushions.

Mojica's musical staging makes clever use of six backup "voices," three each for Vernon and Sonia. The Boys cheekily assemble an automobile, which Vernon uses to impulsively spirit Sonia off to a Long Island beach house.

With none-too-ambitious programming and players like Lewis in the fold, VMT -- which scored a hit with "Beehive" -- appears to be firing on all cylinders.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

[e-mail]

THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG - Three and one half stars

Where: Valley Musical Theatre at the El Portal Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; through March 11.

Tickets: $35 to $50. [phone]. www.elportaltheatre.com.

In a nutshell: Standout work by Vicki Lewis.

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Photo:

Vernon Gersch (Scott Waara) and Sonia Walsk (Vicki Lewis) are clearly meant for each other in the Valley Musical Theatre production of "They're Playing Our Song," at the El Portal.