DOWNEY — It isn’t really a concert and it isn’t a recital. It’s just “an enjoyable musical break from the 24-hour news cycle,” says Marsha Moode, executive producer and director of “Rodgers and Hart: A Celebration,” playing weekends through March 7 at the Downey Civic Theatre, 8435 E. Firestone Blvd.

Moode masterfully juggles five lead performers, 10 dancers and 14 singers through a medley of 53 songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart between about 1920 to 1942. Musical conductor Eddy Clement and his band provided appropriate music for all numbers, including 1920s and 1930s sounds heavy on saxophones and the piano.

Most of the selections are assigned by Moode to the five leads — Joseph Culliton, Susan Dohan and John Racca, members of Actors Equity Association, along with frequent star Charlotte Carpenter and longtime Downey Civic Light Opera performer Ann Peck McBride.

But Moode also allocated numbers to young newcomers, such as Nicole Manly in “You Took Advantage of Me,” William James Jr. with “Dancing on the Ceiling,” Valerie Jasso and Julie Simpson singing “It Never Entered My Mind,” and “There’s a Small Hotel,” sung by Brandon Lee Roth and Shannon Cudd.
Kit Wilson, who appears in many Downey productions, gets to sing in a quartet and show off his tenor voice in a solo “Love Me Tonight.”

McBride shows her versatility with a tongue-in-cheek song from “Connecticut Yankee” telling how she killed numerous husbands to “Preserve My Love.” Her final number is on a small piano in a tight dress singing “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.”

Well known songs done by the leads include “My Heart Stood Still” by Racca, “Falling in Love With Love” by Carpenter, “Where or When” by Carpenter and Culliton, “Thou Swell,” “Little Girl Blue,” “The Lady Is a Tramp” and “I Could Write a Book,” by Dohan.

Of special note was Carpenter’s rendition of “With a Song in My Heart,” and Racca, with Lisa Meert, singing “Mimi” and doing a great impersonation of the late French singer Maurice Chevalier.

The first act ends with a singing, dance number “Mountain Greenery,” with tap dancer Gabe Copeland and the ensemble; and the final number, “Manhattan,” by the entire cast.

There is no plot but there is a story line, as Moode has various performers comment on incidents from the lives of Rodgers and Hart and background information on the various songs.

She keeps things moving as the performers quietly come on stage, by themselves, in pairs or groups of three or more to begin the comments and the next selection almost before their predecessors finish theirs.

The story background is fascinating. It tells of Rodgers, tall, handsome, self assured; and his partner, Hart, who was short, moody, alcoholic and a pessimist about love, but who was a genius in writing lyrics.

His pessimism is shown in many of his lyrics, telling of unsuccessful love, such as in “It Never Entered My Mind,” “Little Girl Blue,” “Falling in Love With Love Is Falling for Make Believe,” by Carpenter and "I Wish I Were in Love Again,” featuring Carpenter and Culliton missing their tempestuous relationship with lyrics such as “the hateful hates and conversation with the flying plates.”

The narrators tell us that Hart died in 1943 at age 47 and Rodgers went on for another 20 years with a new partner, Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote about successful love in such hits as “Oklahoma” and “Carousel.”

Moode always seeks to have the performers interact with the audience. The narrators do that as they speak directly to those present. Racca comes down into the audience to sing to specific audience members while Dohan perches on the end of the stage looking into the audience to sing “Little Girl Blue.”
Some ladies in the audience even had the chance to dance with some of the handsome, young men.

Show times are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and again March 5 and 6 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday and March 7.

Tickets are $35 for orchestra seat, $30 for the balcony and $25 for students with identification.

Information: (562) 923-1714.