New version of old favorite

It’s been well over 62 years since Judy Garland spent a jolly hour on the trolley, pined for the boy next door and advised Margaret O’Brien to have herself a merry little Christmas. And it’s been about 103 years since the events depicted in “Meet Me in St. Louis” transpired.

Nevertheless, the Smith family of Missouri’s largest city have endured, mostly on film but lately in the form of a stage musical that packages all the old Garland numbers and adds a few more for the show’s other performers. The musical is running now at Laguna Beach High School under the auspices of local theater group, Gallimaufry Performing Arts.

Steve Josephson, a Laguna High grad who has amassed many professional credits ever since, is the co-founder and artistic director of this three-year-old community endeavor. He has mounted a thoroughly enjoyable production of this family-friendly musical. Fans of the Garland movie will find two- and-a-half hours’ worth of nostalgia on the Artists Theater stage.

The music may be canned and the beautiful sets and costumes rented, but the actors are genuine enough, and both Josephson’s direction and the choreography, by Tod A. Kubo, are particularly impressive.

The Hugh Martin-Ralph Blane score can be overextended at times ? such as in a silly but well-choreographed number called “The Banjo” or the square-dancing ditty “Skip to My Lou,” neither of which does much for the story ? but the meat of the original remains quite tasty.

Much of that meat is served up, deliciously, by Kira Josephson, the director’s daughter, who renders a marvelously affecting performance in the Garland role of the teenager discovering that there really is no place like home, especially when her true love resides just a few feet away. Josephson combines a winning warmth of character with a stunning singing voice in this key assignment.

Rich Wordes enacts the family patriarch with a stern demeanor but a tender heart beneath all the authoritarian bluster. Amy Hitchcock as his dutiful wife projects insight and intelligence to counterbalance her more volatile husband, and Clare Solly is terrific as the family’s no-nonsense Irish maid.

Veteran Laguna actor George J. Woods, the lone “pro” in the cast, excels as the family’s feisty grandfather. Annie Freeman and Sara Busic are quite effective as the older and younger, sister, respectively, but Chloe Mansour, to no one’s surprise, completely walks off with the show as the youngest child, a sly charmer even as a pre-schooler.

The elder girls’ love interests are nicely projected by Christian Marriner as the “boy next door” and James Vaughn as the suitor conducting a touch-and-go romance with Freeman’s character. Noah Plomgren effectively portrays the only Smith son, a college-bound free spirit who also impresses on the dance floor.

“The Trolley Song,” perhaps the most enduring number from the 1944 movie, winds up the first act and is dutifully reprised toward the end of the second. Rob Woyshner’s splendid musical direction and Thomas Macfarlane’s orchestral recording combine to make this and other key numbers particularly memorable.

One thing the Laguna production fails to accomplish effectively is bringing falling snow to a winter romantic scene without drowning out the billing and cooing with the grating sound of the snow-making machine. Likewise, Solly’s second-act opening number, “A Touch of the Irish,” often is overmatched by the recorded score.

Gallimaufry may be difficult to say and even harder to remember, but this ambitious community group ? which explores theater, dance and music ? will be hard to forget once its audience experiences the talent and charm of “Meet Me in St. Louis.”

Generation GAP production

Gallimaufry’s self-producing teen theater company, the Generation GAP, is producing their summer musical, “Once on this Island,” for two matinees at the Artists’ Theater Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.

The musical is written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, the composers of “Ragtime” and “Seussical.” Tickets: www.gallimaufry.info.

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