One had only to close one’s eyes at the Maine Center for the Arts last night to be there on the mean streets of New York as the Sharks and the Jets prepare for their rumble; to be aboard the HMS Pinafore while the sailors celebrate their camaraderie; and to regale in the gypsies’ lust for life as they toil with their anvils.

Such was the magic performed by members of the Maine Gay Men’s Chorus during their first visit to Orono, as they delighted a small but enthusiastic audience in a tribute to musical theater, Italian opera and operetta, the proceeds of which benefit the Eastern Maine AIDS Network. Selections included “We Sail the Ocean Blue,” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore”; the Anvil Chorus from Giuseppi Verdi’s “Il Trovatore”; and excerpts from “West Side Story.”

There was no doubt but that the audience’s collective heart was full as Tony and Maria, the star-crossed lovers from “West Side Story,” came alive through Neil Anderson and Rhee Michelle, the chorus’s guest soloist. Anderson’s “Maria” made us thrill as Tony told of discovering the one true love of his life, while his and Michelle’s passionate rendition of “Tonight” made us alternately ache and delight in their newfound love.

Meanwhile, the chorus made convincing gang members in “Gee, Officer Krupke,” as they strutted their stuff in white T-shirts with rolled-up sleeves, snapping their fingers and explaining to the policeman that it wasn’t their fault that they were juvenile delinquents.

But the laughing was never so loud as when the group performed “Trial by Jury,” from an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan. Rich Price was hilarious as the defendant who must explain to the judge and jury why he cannot marry his former fiancee, who has brought him into court for breach of promise. The reason, of course, in MGMC’s appropriate twist of Gilbert and Sullivan’s original story, is that he has discovered that his heart lies with another man. Angelina, portrayed by Michelle, played a convincingly promiscuous fiancee who is finally delighted to accept the judge’s marriage proposal.

Meanwhile, spokespersons from the Eastern Maine AIDS Network and Wilde-Stein Club, the University of Maine’s gay, lesbian and bisexual group, agreed that they were satisfied with ticket sales of around 350. They said they would definitely invite the Maine Gay Men’s Chorus back soon with an eye to increased advance publicity.