THEATER REVIEW:

The musical “Man of La Mancha” has been around since 1965, and Tim Nelson has been involved with it in one capacity or another since 1982.

They’re hooked up again, in a stirring production for Huntington Beach’s Academy for the Performing Arts, and using the current renovation work at Huntington Beach High School as a splendid excuse to move the show to Westminster’s Rose Center Theater, which Nelson also administers.

Nelson is both director and musical director for this familiar yet still highly involving production about the adventures of Miguel de Cervantes’ famous mad knight Don Quixote. When the company turns in unison toward the audience for the last few bars of the show’s signature song, “The Impossible Dream,” there will be few dry eyes in the house.

It may still comprise high school kids, but the talent level in this rendition is radiant. Only an all-too-carefully choreographed fight scene interrupts the full-bore presentation that grabs its audience by the throat and the heart. A second negative is the theater’s sound system which, at Sunday’s matinee, cut in and out during a solo by Jake Wells’ Sancho Panza.

Strong voices are a trademark of past APA productions, but in “Man of La Mancha,” Nelson’s troops set the bar even higher. Jared Marino (the padre) and Jessica Wilson (Antonia) are particularly accomplished in this regard under the baton of orchestra conductor Gregg Gilboe.

The leading performers approach professional caliber. Alex Syiek’s Cervantes/Quixote conveys an authority and stage presence far beyond his years, and his voice — particularly while rendering “The Impossible Dream” — is rich and commanding.

Particularly impressive is Aly Lespier as Aldonza, the kitchen wench and prostitute whom Quixote transforms into his idyllic Dulcinea. Outstanding in her fervent abduction scene, Lespier torches the stage with her fiery “Aldonza” number as she attempts to bludgeon the knight errant back to reality.

Wells maintains a youthful presence as Sancho, but this may be viewed as an asset, an impressionable youth following a loony but determined elder. Zak Whitson projects a stern Dr. Carrasco, Brian Wessels enacts a frustrated but accommodating innkeeper, and Emily Walker is fine as his shrewish wife, as is Nick Miranda as the victimized barber.

Diane Makas’ stirring choreography, particularly the sequence involving the gypsy dancers, is splendidly accomplished.

The huge cast responds in unison to the demands of both reality and imagination. Courtney Suter’s costumes are well chosen for the period and the circumstances.

Few musical theater productions carry the visceral power of “Man of La Mancha,” and the Huntington Beach student cast brings this classic beautifully to life in its lavish temporary quarters.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Man of La Mancha”

WHO: Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts

WHERE: Rose Center Theater, 14140 All American Way, Westminster

WHEN: Closing performances Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.

COST: $13 to $18

CALL: (714) 793 1150 ext. 1

Back in the mid-1950s, when radio’s Western series “Gunsmoke” was getting ready for its close up on television, do you think they even considered keeping William Conrad in the saddle as Marshal Matt Dillon? Hey, the guy later played the role on TV’s “Jake and the Fatman.”

So, James Arness was tapped for a part that brought him steady paychecks for nearly two decades. This must have occurred to playwright Kitty Felde when she dreamed up “Man With No Shadow,” one of two one-act plays about actors and their craft now on the boards at Orange Coast College, both directed by OCC’s Alex Golson.

“Man With No Shadow” is set in a radio studio where the last episode of the Western show’s radio version is being performed live. It’ll move on to TV, but not with Jim, its leading man of 11 years, tall in the saddle. He’s middle-aged and balding with somewhat of a physical resemblance to Conrad.

The producers have selected Brett — a tall, young and studly dude who’s currently playing the heavy on radio — to switch over as the good guy, and this doesn’t set well with the other cast members. Brett, it seems, has a mean streak, an ego as big as all outdoors and is sleeping with the actress wife of another actor on the show.

Jim’s scheme to prevent an Arness-like takeover is the crux of this comedy, and Shawn P. Greenfield struggles nobly as the likable “marshal.” Tenton Smith neatly establishes his nastiness as Brett, narrowly missing the trap of taking the character over into melodrama.

Elyse Russell, svelte and smoldering, handles the faithless sexpot splendidly, while David Cowan fumes impotently as her sidelined husband and fellow cast member.

Jill Prout and Julia Lee Crawfis spice up the radio show, each taking her contrasting character somewhat over the top.

Russell, it seems, is just warming up. She’s the most memorable of 11 performers who make up “The Auditioners,” Doug Rand’s outrageous comedy about stage tryouts, which arrives following intermission.

As director Samantha Wellen slowly descends into madness, the would-be stars arrive for their classical and contemporary monologues. Trouble is, most of them are doing Lady Macbeth’s mad scene from “that Scottish play” — over and over, in varying interpretations.

The characters are identified only by their personas, and Russell’s is labeled “Clueless,” though “Persistent” would be more accurate. Having botched her first attempt, she keeps reappearing in various disguises, hoping her determination will catch the director’s eye.

Most of the other tryouts are intentionally awful, though Laura Palacios, who opens the show, impresses with some genuine strength and skill. Dillon Hulse has the most fun — as does, by extension, the audience — with a “best of” monologue, tossing off Shakespeare’s most familiar lines as well as a few of those most recognizable to today’s moviegoers.

Prout is back, also, as the “improv queen,” taking suggestions from the audience (in a supposedly empty theater), while Courtney Chudleigh rattles off her Lady Macbeth number in Esperanto. Cara Bloom’s “street tough” and Gabrielle Salas’ “Miss Universe” also are fun to watch.

The OCC doubleheader offers the college’s thespians two chances to sink their teeth into something broad and outrageous, and the audience reaps the rewards.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Man With No Shadow” and “The Auditioners”

WHERE: Orange Coast College Drama Lab Theater

WHEN: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 28

COST: $5 to $10

CALL: (714) 432-5880

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear Thursdays.