THEATER REVIEW:

She’s been an ice-skating champion, a Bond girl and has shared camera time with the likes of Bette Davis and Stacy Keach’s Mike Hammer. And now, after a decade of artistic inactivity, Lynn-Holly Johnson is back — on stage in Newport Beach.

Johnson, a Newport resident, hadn’t acted since 1996, but she jumped at the chance to perform a leading role in one of her favorite shows, the stage version of the classic Christmas movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” opening next Thursday and playing through the weekend.

“Believe it or not, this is my first crack at the theater since I was 10 years old,” Johnson said. And as the icing on the cake, she’ll be sharing the stage at the Newport Coast Community Center with her two children — Kellen, who plays young George Bailey, and Jensie-Grace — in the scene-stealing role of little Zuzu.

Johnson didn’t have Hollywood even in the back of her mind when she moved west from Chicago to pursue a career as a professional figure skater, capturing second place at the 1974 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. But in 1978, along came the movie “Ice Castles,” which altered the course of her career forever.

After “Ice Castles,” Johnson found herself a marketable actress. “I’d done commercials back home, but I was really here for skating. Next thing you know, I’m acting in a movie with Bette Davis ”

When director Robert Michael Conrad approached her about playing Mary Bailey for the Newport Beach Repertory Theater’s 17th annual production of “Wonderful Life,” Johnson jumped at the chance.

“It’s one of our favorite movies,” she said. “It’s a thrill to be part of it. All the people are so good.”

As for her “inactivity” over the past decade, Johnson laughs. “I’ve never been busier. That’s kids for you: a nonstop, wonderful, long-running play. I guess I’ll get the reviews when they turn 18.”

Admitting that she “missed being creative,” Johnson has involved herself in more theater projects, including making her directorial debut in an Internet series and shorts for film festivals.

“I’ve never regretted leaving LA,” she said. “It’s wonderful down here being a mom and a wife.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “It’s a Wonderful Life”

WHO: Newport Beach Repertory Theater

WHERE: Newport Coast Community Center, 6401 San Joaquin Hills Road, Newport Coast

WHEN: Nov. 29-30 at 8 p.m., Dec. 1 at 1:30 and 8 p.m., Dec. 2 at 1:30 p.m.

COST: $16 - $18

CALL: (714) 244-6240

‘Jersey Boys’ rocks out at Artscenter

A few years before the Beatles arrived on our shores and forever altered the history of popular music, four brash Italian lads from New Jersey were hitting it big with their own brand of infectious sounds, writing their own numbers and selling 175 million records

These were the Four Seasons, with lead singer Frankie Valli bouncing the high notes off the rafters. You haven’t heard much about them over the last few decades, but now, about 45 years after it all began, they’re one of the hottest acts on Broadway with their Tony award-winning story, “Jersey Boys.”

Packed with both toe-tapping music and intense, real life-inspired drama, “Jersey Boys” now is bringing audiences old and young to their feet at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, where the show will flourish through Dec. 1. Whether you’re a nostalgic fan or someone who’s never heard of the Four Seasons, you’ll get a big kick out of this one.

“Jersey Boys” gives us the Four Seasons, warts and all, and the blemishes balance the harmony in an infectious production that started just down the road a piece at the La Jolla Playhouse. That theater’s artistic director, Des McAnuff, is at the helm of the touring show that moves, and grooves, effortlessly through its myriad settings and time periods.

It wasn’t easy forming the group, since one or more of its members usually was in prison back in the early days. But finally, the quartet was joined — and dubbed the Four Lovers. The name was changed just in time for the arrival of “Sherry,” a breakthrough number that brings down the house and catapults the Seasons to stardom.

While the show ultimately centers on Valli — superbly enacted and sung by Christopher Kale Jones — the early spotlight falls on Tommy DeVito, the gritty, mob-linked organizer of the group who almost gambled its success away. Here, Deven May portrays DeVito with a steely edge combined with a keen business sense, at least in the early period.

Fame came calling almost simultaneously with the arrival of keyboardist/lyricist Bob Gaudio, richly played by Erich Bergen as a music-focused creative genius with little life experience — he loses his virginity on tour — but enough musical savvy to have written the hit “Short Shorts” at 15. The brooding guitarist Nick Massi, who finally breaks out of the shadows, is convincingly delivered by Steve Gouveia.

With all the hit numbers — “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “My Eyes Adored You,” “Dawn” — packed into the show, it’s a wonder any stories get told, but they do indeed. All four musicians are fleshed out splendidly in interpretations that, particularly in DeVito’s case, often are quite unflattering.

Jones not only gets into the skin of Frankie Valli, he approximates the singer’s high falsetto voice, which became the group’s trademark. When the Seasons separate in 1970, amid rounds of recriminations, it’s his sound that helms a new group dubbed Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

“Jersey Boys” hits the high and lows of the Four Seasons’ career with passion and panache. For those with a fondness for the originals, it’s a magnificently nostalgic experience.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Jersey Boys”

WHERE: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

WHEN: Tuesdays through Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2 & 7:30, Sundays at 1 & 6:30 (with a special staging Monday, Nov. 26, at 7:30), through Dec. 1

COST: $25 - $80

CALL: (714) 556-2787

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