By MEL GUSSOW

At 5:30 A.M., the day after James Naughton opened in his new one-man musical revue at the Manhattan Theater Club, he was in a graveyard in Queens acting in a scene in an independent film called “Oxygen.” Then, after a long day’s work, he raced back to the theater to give his next performance. As always, Mr. Naughton is high on energy and tal-ent.

A two-time Tony winner for “City of Angels” and the revival of “Chicago” he has performed at benefits and sung with other actors in cabarets, and he is a dramatic actor of distinction. This is his debut as a solo performer in an act of his own devising.

In the show, which closes on Sun-day, he sings “Star Dust” and “Lazy River,” Elvis Presley's “Are You Lonesome Tonight” and a country western, “I've Been Everywhere,” by Hank Snow, in which he tongue- trips through 96 places in America and then, repeats the words double time without missing a beat. Inten-tionally he omits show tunes while mixing a repertory with ease and musicality. “Who knew that Mr. Naughton is also a pop crooner with an extraordinarily beautiful voice?” Stephen Holden wrote in his review in The New York Times.

If Mr. Naughton knew it, he was not telling anyone. Over lunch on another long work day—filming in the morning, singing in the evening-—he admitted that it was odd to be dubbed a pop crooner after almost 30 years in the theater, adding singing. had come to him naturally ever since he was a child. He has had very little musical training, but possesses what he calls “an iron voice” and has even sung though a cold as the Bogart-like detective in “City of Angels.”

His effortless way with a tune is one reason he has avoided making singing a career. Music is for entertainment, for noodling around, and when he has been in a success he leaves after a year to get back to the real business of acting. Although he is greatly in demand as a musical star, he has done only three Broadway musicals. (His first was “I Love My Wife” in 1977.)

For years he as acted in films and on television to pay for his summer vocation. He lives for he time he goes to the Williamstown Theater Festival to challenge himself as an actor, and in recent years, as a director, and yes, he would have done these plays in New York, if it were possible to do these plays in New York.

At Williamstown, Mr. Naughton has done plays by Arthur Miller, Maxim Gorky and a full range of roles by Tennessee Williams, including Shannon, the defrocked priest in “The Night of the Iguana,” and Alvaro Mangiacavallio in “The Rose Tattoo,” starring in both with Maria Tucci.

Mr. Naughton has often delighted audiences at Williamstown cabarets and had thought about doing an act by himself, but kept putting it off. About two years ago, he was asked to participate in a tribute to Cy Coleman, the composer of his first two Broadway musicals, and he chose a torch song, “With Every Breath I Take,” which had been sung by an actress in “City of Angels.” George Shearing, who was at his table, was taken with his performance and encouraged him, even making a tape of songs he might sing. Buoyed by Mr. Shearing’s enthusiasm and by that of Mary Cleere Haran, a cabaret star who also had suggestions, he finally made his solo bow.

Matched with John Oddo, for years Rosemary Clooney’s musical director and pianist, he put together an eclectic act, in contrast with many other singers who specialize in one kind of number or in work by a single composer. Partly he drew from his own backlog of favorite songs. His aim was to create a show that would have a dramatic curve as well as musical verve. What unifies the songs, of course, is the singer and his engaging personality.

Walking on stage with nonchalance, he intersperses songs with patter about musical and theatrical matters (like stage fright). Any night he might add a tune or a story. With a jazz-flavored five-piece band in the background, the show is informal, as if Mr. Naughton is making it up on the spot, although many hours have gone into its preparation.

Compared with his summertime roles, the show is resolutely upbeat, which means that for once his art is drawing on his life. “When I was a young actor,” he said, “I couldn’t get enough of the really tragic plays, the more dramatic, the more depressing, the better. The older I get, the more appreciation I have for the joy you can have and you can give in singing.”

Mr. Naughton said that his career has been serendipitous, but that now he plans to take more initiative: directing, acting in my plays by O’Neill and, of course, presenting a reprise of his one-man revue.

When he graduated from Yale Drama School, he made his New York Debut (in 1971) in the Off Broadway revival of “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” starring Robert Ryan and Geraldine Fitzgerald. Since then he has never stopped acting and though he continues to work in movies and television (as host of a trial series on Court TV), most of his roles have been on Broadway on in regional theaters near his home in Connecticut. That is by choice, so that he could have a family life with his wife, Pamela, and their two children, now both grown.

His son, Greg, and his daughter, Keira, both actors, are in the family business, Greg Naughton as the artistic director of the Blue Light Theater, one of the more enterprising of the new Off Off Broadway companies. For Blue Light, James Naughton has acted with his son (in “Golden Boy”) and directed (“Filumena”), and Pamela Naughton is the director of development. “It’s very difficult to make a life—and a living—in the theater,” said James Naughton, “but that’s where my life has been.”

“I’ve been working for 28 years,” he added. “I’m 52, and I’m only halfway through my career.” Looking forward to the evening’s show and everything that will follow, he said, “It feels like this is the prime time.”