A CELEBRATION OF JANISJOPLIN'S LIFE

 Michael and Laura Joplin might have been reluctant to see their sister's life become the subject of a musical revue. After all, Janis Joplin's time in the rock 'n' roll spotlight was as brief as it was legendary, and ended tragically, when she died of a heroin overdose at 27.

But the late star's two younger siblings had no trouble giving their blessings to Randy Johnson, the writer and director of One Night With Janis Joplin, which opens Thursday at Washington's ArenaStage and runs through Nov. 4.

Previously produced last summer at the Cleveland Play House, One Night is, according to the surviving Joplins, more a celebration of the whiskey-voiced singer's achievements and influences than an exploration of her demons.

"One of our goals was that people would enjoy this evening," says Michael, 59, a visual artist. "We wanted them to sing and laugh and have a good time, and to remember Janis like I remember her: funny and real, with this big voice."

Laura, 63, a writer — her credits include the biography Love, Janis — adds that the emphasis is "on Janis' music, which was pure joy." She trusted Johnson to take that approach after seeing Always, Patsy Cline, another musical tribute to an icon who had died young, which he produced.

"I loved that show so much," Laura recalls. "So Randy had a certain halo around him when we met. We started talking about how to connect Janis' songs to her earlier life, and it got us remembering a lot of things."

Janis' first creative mentors, her parents, had different musical tastes, Laura notes. "Our father was deeply into classical music. He taught us that it was important to sit down and listen to the performer's technique. Our mother had been a stage singer, and she was into Broadway show tunes. We'd crank them up on cleaning days and sing along, and she'd critique our enunciation or diaphragm support."

Later, the teenage Janis would listen to folk, blues and jazz with friends, many of them also fledgling musicians. In One Night, a "blues singer" represents the artists who informed her rootsy rock; Sabrina Elayne Carten plays that performer, while Cleveland native Mary Bridget Davies appears as Janis herself.

"It helps you put Janis' background into perspective," says Michael of the blues singer character. "There's this woman singing blues songs from the '20s and '30s, and then you hear Janis doing them with a different beat, so it's rock 'n' roll."

Michael points out that Davies has studied his sister's music since childhood. "Her mother was a fan, and she really gets it. We didn't want someone who would try to mimic Janis. There would be no point in trying to do that. We wanted someone who could bring a similar sense of emotion to the music."

Both Joplins have been tickled by audience response to their sister's music. "I'm still shocked to watch them sing along to a song like Mercedes Benz, and know every verse, all these years later."

Laura imagines that their late parents would have been "very proud" to witness that reaction.

"They saw the '60s as members of their generation did," she muses. "They didn't really understand what the San Francisco movement and all that was about. But to see people still responding to Janis' music like that? They would have thought it was wonderful."