STAGE REVIEW : ‘Camelot’ Squeezes Well Into a Little Theater

The proper expectations are the key to enjoying the Huntington Beach Playhouse’s “Camelot.”

Like many of its counterparts throughout Orange County, the playhouse is a little theater with a small budget. Anyone who goes to the production expecting visual grandeur--the type of lavish, magical staging usually associated with Lerner and Loewe’s recasting of the King Arthur legend--are apt to be disappointed.

Director Marla Gam-Hudson takes something of a minimalist approach to the 1960 musical, with varying results. The sets by Randimar Productions are very simple, and Laurel Koelsch’s and Terri Miller-Schmidt’s costumes range from professional to homemade (Lancelot’s “armor” amounts to gray spandex tights and what looks like molded cardboard painted silver). The overall appearance is frugal utilitarian.

But if you can accept the economical aura, there are moments to enjoy. For sure, the production does have its clumsy patches, but the principals (Mike Moon as Arthur and Robin Follman as Guinevere) are both able. Follman is especially strong--this veteran of Opera Pacific and the Master Chorale of Orange County has a rich voice and an often vivid acting style.

Her Guinevere is a naive but juicy young thing when she arrives, already promised as Arthur’s bride. She’s a girl with womanly feelings, often impulsive, even wanton, that signal the passionate trouble she later gets into when the chaste Lancelot (Mike Thompson) arrives. Follman does equally well on the frothy “The Lusty Month of May” and the deeper “I Loved You Once in Silence.”

There’s no way for Moon to match Follman’s singing skills, but he does have one of those pleasant, music-hall voices that never lacks personality. His acting is also ripe with the stuff. His Arthur fails at being a romantic, regal figure--Moon goes for the overgrown boy in the man almost every time--but his king is likable.

Gam-Hudson tries to compensate for the production’s minor-key looks by bringing a courtly touch to a few crucial scenes. This amounts to having the large cast parade through the aisles and, in effect, use the entire theater as a stage. Unfortunately, while it does impart a sense of expanse to the proceedings, it makes everything too busy.

The show is faithful to the musical’s original intent on most scores, but Gam-Hudson does play around with the sorceress Morgan Le Fey. Here, Terri Miller-Schmidt turns her into a kicky vision of witchful kinkiness, emerging from the woods in black leather and chains, and brandishing a nasty little whip.

‘CAMELOT’

A Huntington Beach Playhouse production of Lerner and Loewe’s musical. Directed by Marla Gam-Hudson. With Mike Moon, Rich Flin, Robin Follman, Mike Thompson, Tony Crowell, Craig Houston Brewer, Terri Miller-Schmidt, Tyler Morgan, Tom Royer, Markus Elders, Spider Madison, Chris Barela, Laurel Koelsch, Paula Thill, Mathew Koelsch, Kent Scarlatta, Rona Honeyman, Stephanie Haymond, Mary Edgecomb, Jerry Beattie, Mary Ann Osnes, Erin Hickey, Erika Hickey, Marcia Bonitz, John D. Scoby and Chris Hubbs. Sets by Randimar Productions. Lighting by Martin G. Eckmann, Costumes by Laurel Koelsch and Terri Miller-Schmidt. Musical direction by John Evans. Plays Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. through Nov. 18 at the Geisler Little Theatre at 21141 Strathmoor Lane, Huntington Beach. Tickets: $6 to $10. (714) 832-1405.