Back in the Spotlight

Cheryl Barnes is a singer with a crystal bite of a voice who can take the rousing “Dreamgirls� role identified with Jennifer Holliday and make you forget Holliday.

Starring in the Long Beach Civic Light Opera’s current production of the Motown-era musical, Barnes is a mystery woman to all but a few cognoscenti. She last appeared in a musical 13 years ago (Broadway’s “The Magic Show�), sang a solo in the 1979 movie version of “Hair,� won $100,000 on TV’s “Star Search� a year ago and has spent most of the ‘80s out of sight--on a string of odd jobs and spiritual adventures.

“I run away from the industry and the business a lot,� Barnes said this week. “It’s an obligation to be who I am, to appreciate the planet. I felt compelled to retreat and connect because the career aspects got too big. I needed to clarify myself, to fill in spaces.�

Barnes, who looks startlingly younger and slimmer in person than the Holliday-like bulk she affects for “Dreamgirls,� is powerful in her own piercing rendition of the show’s one great number, “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going.� Ironically, she was Michael Bennett’s choice to replace Holliday in a 1980 workshop where “Dreamgirls� was first developed.

But Bennett wanted her to sing in Holliday’s style, she said. “The riffs they were teaching me for that song were Holliday’s. Riffs are personal expressions. I didn’t feel comfortable doing it, so I quit.�

And she dropped out--living for a year alone in the Mojave desert, doing telephone sales work in Santa Barbara and working with the Salvation Army. Now she’s shedding some of her “ ‘60s-’70s mentality.�

The Muse has lured her to the footlights once again.

“I don’t feel I’ve been meandering,� she said. “But now I want to grab it (opportunity). It’s time. I’ve done the introspection. I’ve done the retreat. Now I have the information to move on.�