STAGE REVIEW : Broadway Veteran Gets Lively Salute : The Saddleback College revival of ‘Jerry’s Girls’ shows that it knows what composer Herman’s music is about, yet it pokes fun at its naivete.

Composer Jerry Herman has had a solid Broadway career, but you couldn’t call it trailblazing. Despite his share of hits (including “Mame” and “Hello, Dolly!”), it would be a long stretch to place him in the same category as, say, Stephen Sondheim or Cole Porter.

His scores, although almost always commercial, have been a little antique and a shade obvious, even at their rousing best. Put a string of them together, and you’re likely to be struck as much by the similarities in melody and theme as by the old-fashioned spirit.

That’s certainly one of the impressions that comes from “Jerry’s Girls,” the revue of more than 30 Herman tunes now being revived at Saddleback College as the last in its professional summer-stock series. It’s an honorable and lively tribute to this veteran of the Broadway wars, but one that can’t avoid the limitations of his work.

Director Teri Ralston and her cast of 10 “Jerry’s Girls” approach the material with vivacity. Ralston shows that she understands what Herman’s music is all about--the simple virtues of love and country, the devotion to the small joys in life--and manages to emphasize that while poking fun at its naivete at the same time.

Even when everyone overdoes it--there’s a good amount of music-hall theatricality here--there’s a sense that it’s purposeful, working that feel-good mood into a lather. Fortunately, the vibe is not so much annoying as exuberantly comic.

The four main girls (Regina Le Vert, Tracy Lore, Annie McGreevey and Lisa Robinson) make for an energetic, laugh-hardy lot that takes much of its inspiration from vaudeville. McGreevey is the show’s chameleon, tossing out Fanny Brice and Marlene Dietrich impersonations along the way; Le Vert, with her high-voltage voice, does the belting; Lore serves double duty as sexpot and capering kid; Robinson is mainly there for the gags.

They plunge into the best of Herman’s library--”If He Walked Into My Life” from “Mame,” “Nelson” from “A Day in Hollywood,” “I Am What I Am” from “La Cage Aux Folles” and the signature numbers from “Hello, Dolly!” and “Mame”--with so much guile that the show is pleasurable, even with the inherent restrictions.

‘Jerry’s Girls’

A Saddleback College revue of songs by Jerry Herman. Directed by Teri Ralston. With Regina Le Vert, Tracy Lore, Annie McGreevey, Lisa Robinson, Jennifer Chadwick, Elisha Gruer, Kim Moore, Karen Smith, Alli Potts and Victoria Velasco. Choreography by Roger Castellano. Musical direction by Diane King Vann. Sets by Wally Huntoon. Lighting and sound design by Kevin Cook. Costumes by Charles Castagno. Plays Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. with 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday matinees at the McKinney Theatre, 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. Tickets: $12 and $14. (714) 582-4656.