‘Chaps’ at Home on the Stage

It’s London in 1944, and Tex Riley’s Radio Roundup is expected to perform in 15 minutes for the British Broadcasting Corp.

But heavens, these cowboys must have missed the train!

Their stage manager shows up alone with a trunk of costumes, instruments and music. And with the brave boys on the front waiting for the broadcast, well, is there really any question whether Mabel, the stage manager (Sarah Zimmerman), will be able to persuade the asthmatic producer (Jon Lorenz), the snooty announcer (Doren Elias), the cockney sound man (Greg Campbell), the silent sound-effects man (Ian Shields) and a fish-and-chips salesman (Clay Rider) to slap on some 10-gallon hats (for the benefit of the studio audience) and go on with the show?

Such is the premise of “Chaps,” a cowboy musical revue by Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner now getting its West Coast premiere at Lamb’s Players Theatre.

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Actually, it sounds awfully similar to the Old Globe Theatre’s recent “Cowgirls,” as well as the Lamb’s Players’ own 1995 Christmas production, which centered on an amateur singing group that ends up having to do an entire radio broadcast when a snowstorm keeps the stars from reaching the studio.

But since “Chaps” was developed independently just last year at Hope Summer Repertory Theatre in Michigan, that’s just the coincidence of finding a formula that can work like a string on which to bead a set of songs.

Once you’ve got the string, the real trick with pulling together a revue is finding songs that work together in a unique way, whether linked by period as in “Forever Plaid” and “Beehive” or by composer as in “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” and “Five Guys Named Moe.”

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Beecham and Hillgartner have hit upon the theme of cowboy music and by cracky, it works. There are 20 numbers, from “I’m an Old Cowhand” to “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” and “Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” and if they’re not all familiar, they’re all easy on the ears under the artful musical direction of Deborah Gilmour Smyth.

Robert Smyth, producing director of the company, pulls winning performances from the cast of six. Zimmerman is a regular at the company and brings a funny vulnerability to shy Mabel, who is delighted to find out she can sing--and very sweetly too.

Elias is an over-the-top comic ace as Leslie Briggs-Stratton, the prissy cowboy-hating radio announcer who is blackmailed by Lorenz’s producer into putting on the chaps and--at one point--a dress that shows off his chest hair.

Lorenz, Campbell and Rider have a poignant number bridging differences with Zimmerman as they interweave the British “White Cliffs of Dover” with the American “The Roundup in the Spring.”

And Ian Shields gets great mileage out of the silent Harpo Marx-like role of Stan, the sound-effects man, who makes all his points percussively.

Mike Buckley’s set, warmly lit by Scott O’Donnell, effectively describes a BBC radio studio. And Stacey Rae’s sequined and fringe-friendly cowboy and cowgirl duds are excessively funny and fine.

But the best visual is the ventriloquist’s dummy for which Lorenz is pressed into service as the head. Like the show itself, it’s an artful Pinocchio-like mixture of real-life charm breaking through the wooden contrivance.

* “Chaps,” Lamb’s Players Theatre, 1142 Orange Ave., Coronado. Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sundays, 7:30 p.m.; Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Sept. 15. $18-$27. (619) 437-0600. Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes.

Greg Campbell: Archie Leitch

Doren Elias: Leslie Briggs-Stratton

Ian Shields: Stan, the Sound Effects Man

Jon Lorenz: Miles Shadwell

Clay Rider: Clive Cooper

Sarah Zimmerman: Mabel Halliday

A Lamb’s Players Theatre production. By Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner. Directed by Robert Smyth. Musical direction and choreography: Deborah Gilmour Smyth. Sets: Mike Buckley. Costumes: Stacey Rae. Lights: Scott O’Donnell. Stage manager: Gabriel Campbell.