ON THEATER:

Mary Martin gained Broadway fame for her sweet, innocent and perky song stylings. Ethel Merman was equally renowned as the brassy bombshell belter. They attained such fame that “Forbidden Broadway” continued to lampoon both long after their deaths.

Adriana Sanchez works both sides of the musical street, lately at the Huntington Beach Playhouse, where she took on the Martin role in “The Sound of Music” a year ago and currently is rattling the rafters with her Mermanesque “Gypsy,” which closes its four-weekend run Sunday.

It’s yet another triumph for Orange County’s first lady of song, whose credits are as musically diverse as the naive Judy Holliday character in “Bells are Ringing” at the Newport Theatre Arts Center and the well-seasoned Sally Bowles in a Costa Mesa production of “Cabaret.”

Underneath it all, Sanchez is a dedicated first-grade teacher with a master’s degree in education who’s been shaping young minds for the past decade while earning standing ovations on weekends. She goes out of her way to show appreciation to all the backstage people who enable her to shine in the spotlight.

“I have been performing for so long I can’t ever imagine my life without it,” Sanchez declares. “It is the one thing that I say I was truly put on this planet to do.” That and teaching children, “specifically in areas where the students are challenged by economics and the English language.”

She credits her mother, a “very traditional woman” who raised Sanchez as a single parent. “I love and admire her for her courage and strength. She is the reason I am where and who I am.”

Sanchez calls her role of Mama Rose in “Gypsy” an “incredible experience,” adding that “I am always amazed at the way I am constantly being challenged by this complex character.”

She recalls playing Louise, the wallflower daughter who goes on to become Gypsy Rose Lee, in a Costa Mesa Playhouse production a few years back. “I could never understand [Rose],” she says, “but now that I am on the other side, I have compassion and understanding for her. I never cold have imagined playing her at this time in my life; now I can’t imagine not.”

Sanchez reserves special praise for her director, Larry Watts, who also staged her production of “Sound of Music,” and Chris Peduzzi, who plays Herbie in “Gypsy” and was Captain Von Trapp in “Sound of Music.” “This is our fourth show together,” she says, “and I always feel that I am just having a conversation with my dear friend and as a bonus, we get to sing together.”

Sanchez had always loved to sing as a child. “I had listened to the Carpenters over and over,” she recalls. “My sister was always making me sing in front of people. She took me to see ‘42nd Street’ at the Pantages and I was hooked.”

She remembers her first audition — at age 10 — for a La Habra production of “Hansel and Gretel.” “I sang ‘You Light Up My Life’ and got cast as an angel.”

Her angelic voice has been charming local audiences ever since, even while her equally angelic personality warms her fellow performers and backstage crew members. “Gypsy” producer Steve Reifenstein put it best when he remarked, “They don’t come any better — or any nicer.”

“One of the things I love about community theater is that everyone is working toward the same goal, to create a great show,” she asserts. “In this production, everyone is supporting everyone. Without everyone’s contribution, my part doesn’t work.”

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.