THEATER REVIEW / ‘SOUTH PACIFIC’ : Enchanted Evening : The Moorpark College production offers humor, tragedy and fine performances by the principals.

Taking a break from its usual repertoire of operettas, Moorpark College’s Summer Musical Theater is presenting its version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific.”

Depending on one’s attitude toward the play, this edition is either a near-total success on a necessarily small scale, or a near-triumph of enthusiastic performance over outdated, mediocre material.

Based on short stories by James A. Michener, the 1947 musical is set on a Pacific island during World War II.

Many, many fans of the show have fallen in love with its treatment of young romance, its sensitivity to a May-September romance, its humorous look at the military, and its stinging indictment of prejudice. Other viewers might find the story a bit hard to take and the characters difficult to sympathize with.

Emile de Becque, an expatriate Frenchman with a shady past, has his eyes set on Nellie Forbush, a naive Navy nurse who is young enough to be his daughter. Newly arrived Lt. Joseph Cable develops a serious lust for one of the local beauties, Liat, though he’s not about to actually marry a non-Caucasian. Nellie cancels her impending marriage to De Becque when she discovers that he has sired two children by his late wife, a native.

If Oscar Hammerstein and Joshua Logan’s plot isn’t (unintentionally) funny enough, comic relief is provided by noncom hustler Luther Billis and his retinue of Seabees and by Liat’s mother, Tonkinese hustler Bloody Mary.

There’s tragic relief as well. One of the major characters dies, which serves as the play’s major dramatic moment and also solves a potential problem of resolution.

The best of Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers’ songs in this score include “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Younger Than Springtime,” “I’m in Love With a Wonderful Guy” and “This Nearly Was Mine.”

Director Marilyn Anderson has double-cast several parts; the version seen Saturday night and repeated tonight, tomorrow and Sunday evening features Susan Rayburn as plucky Ensign Forbush, Virginia Montero as Bloody Mary, Veronica Liu as Liat, and Christian de Haven as Luther Billis. Other actors will play those parts on Saturday night and at Sunday’s matinee. The rest of the cast is the same for all performances.

The above-mentioned principals do good work. It’s nice to see the appealing Rayburn--last seen as Catherine in the Santa Susana Repertory Company version of “The Foreigner”--given something a bit more challenging to work with. And De Haven fires up every scene he’s in.

Of the featured regulars, Damian Gravino makes a strong De Becque, operatic-voiced and with a credible French accent; Mark Goodman does what he can as the wuss Cable, and Grant Dagg stands out (literally) as Billis’ huge and relatively slow-witted henchman.

The set designer is uncredited, but scenic artist Sandra Weaver does well on a limited budget.

Anderson’s decision to use prerecorded orchestral music has its advantages and disadvantages. Many in the audience might prefer hearing the singers backed by a full orchestra, rather than the single live pianist who has provided music for the last several shows. On the other hand, the use of recordings results in sloppy transitions and difficult cues. And the up-tempo songs would probably be peppier with live accompaniment.

WHERE AND WHEN

“South Pacific” continues through Sunday at the Moorpark College Forum Theater. Curtain time is 8 tonight through Saturday, and at 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. General admission tickets are $8; $7 for students and staff, and $6 for seniors and children 12 and under. For reservations or further information, call 378-1437.