THEATER PREVIEW:

It’s barely March, but Vanguard University is busy mapping plans for the second production of the American Coast Theater Company, the new professional troupe headquartered at the Costa Mesa college.

Last summer, ACTC made its debut with a strong revival of Tennessee Williams’ masterpiece, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” This year they’ll be taking the musical route, but not a show whose score you’ve been humming for years.

The company’s 2008 production, opening in mid-July, will be the West Coast premiere of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” a new musical adaptation by Dennis DeYoung, formerly with the rock group Styx.

Come March 16, invited guests and members of the press will get their first peek at “Hunchback” at an event dubbed the ACTC’s first annual spring salon concert fundraiser, with proceeds going to mount the show.

“The love triangle between the gypsy, Esmerelda; the priest Frollo; and the deformed bell ringer, Quasimodo, is a perfect match for the theatrical sensibility of rock legend Dennis DeYoung,” ACTC artistic director Susan K. Berkompas noted.

“The soaring ballads and driving musicality of DeYoung’s score are a perfect match for this story, set against the spires of the world’s most beloved cathedral,” added Berkompas, a multitasker who’s also artistic director at Vanguard and who starred as Blanche in the professional company’s “Streetcar.”

The fundraising event March 16 will be from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Orange County Fine Arts Gallery in South Coast Plaza Village, 3851 Bear St. in Costa Mesa.

Selections from the musical will be sung by DeYoung, Amick Byram and other Broadway singers.

The ACTC is the brainchild of Vanguard’s Berkompas, who declared, “We are committed to producing professional theater with artistic excellence and high production value.

“Our goal is to produce works from the American and international dramatic canon,” she added. “We also will nurture the development of new American playwrights.”

Local theatergoers will get their first look at the musicalized “Hunchback of Notre Dame” from July 18 through Aug. 10.

If successful, the show may be extended through Aug. 24.

The show will be presented in Vanguard’s Lyceum Theater on the campus of the Costa Mesa school.

More information is available at (715) 619-6424 or online at www.AmericanCoastTheater.org.

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