STAGE REVIEW : A Toast to ‘The Student Prince’ of Long Beach

Sigmund Romberg’s bittersweet, Viennese-inspired operetta “The Student Prince,” the longest-running Broadway musical of the 1920s, has been lovingly revived by the Long Beach Civic Light Opera.

It’s fun to see an old warhorse gallop with panache. The production at the Terrace Theatre is endearing, lavish, lilting and robust. Light-opera buffs and mavens of the American musical theater will not be disappointed.

Purists can stir to the richness and depth of Romberg’s romantic score and the student drinking songs. And they will certainly marvel at the set designs capturing the darkly Germanic forest and garden of the mythical Karlsberg monarchy and the cheerful cadet courtyard in Heidelberg. The scenery, designed by David Jenkins, is owned by the New York City Opera (which includes “Student Prince” in its repertoire).

Less-demanding theatergoers will simply be ushered into a vision of another world, the kind that enthralled their grandparents. (Although from the measure of the audience, scores of patrons look like they might have caught the first run in New York.)

Director-choreographer Craig Schaefer has staged a confection as merry as a wedding cake.

The frosting is prince Karl Franz’s student life with real people in Heidelberg before kingly duty calls, bittersweetly ending his melodious romance with a modest barmaid. Gifted tenor David Eisler and sterling-voiced Ann Winkowski attractively enact the naive young lovers.

The show has made some changes. Music director Steven Smith conducts new arrangements by Harper MacKay. Librettist Dorothy Donnelly’s book (based on an old German play, “Alt Heidelberg “) has been revised some by Jerome Chodorov, and her lyrics have been augmented and lightly retouched by Forman Brown (“Come, Boys, Let’s All Be Gay, Boys” is now entitled simply “Come, Boys”).

The smirking, haughty, clownish valet Lutz (a valet with his own valet!) draws on several inspired antics from Dick Patterson, and the University of Heidelberg student cadets are an agile, affectionate ensemble. Their acrobatic entrance is delicious.

Oh, for those beer-drinking student days at Heidelberg, carousing with the fetching barkeeps, as the prince’s worldly tutor rhapsodizes in the show’s lyrical standard, “Golden Days” (a genial, vigorous interpretation by Ben Cartwright look-alike Jack Ritschel).

Emblematic of the production’s discipline is the gentle but hilarious portrait by Carl D. Parker as an aging, obscure wine steward. Even the most cliched roles have texture: Carol Swarbrick’s arch grand duchess, Sarah Tattersall’s model princess, Teresa Brown’s saucy waitress. (Her white dress with the prim sailor stripes is a piquant touch that underscores the tone of the whole show.)

Performances at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center, Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinee, 2 p.m., through March 12. Tickets: $10-$26. (213) 432-7926 or (213) 480-3232.