THEATER REVIEW : New-Look ‘Phantom’ Takes Off on Hauntingly Familiar Success : Popular Moorpark Melodrama spoof of the Lloyd Webber musical is even better second time around.

For its 1995 season, the Moorpark Melodrama is reviving a number of the group’s most enthusiastically received shows from the past several years; the current offering, “The Phantom of the Melodrama,” is said to be the most popular ever. And this version is even better than its predecessor.

Tim Kelly’s script takes off loosely from, no surprise, the venerable “Phantom of the Opera” plot, with a disfigured and masked fellow developing a crush on Christine (Jennifer Moore), a pretty, young soprano.

This Phantom (David Webster) lives in a theater that’s being converted from an opera house to something not unlike the Moorpark Melodrama itself, headed by one Linda Broadway (Catherine Pentecost). The Melodrama’s Phantom is somewhat clumsier than others you might be used to, constantly tripping over himself and falling out of the closets where he’s lurking. And Christine--lovely as can be--is none too bright, alas.

Other main characters include dashing Lt. Fairleigh Good (Kevin McDonald); Linda’s attorney, Bernie (Will Shupe II); stagehand Guppy Gopher (Stephanie Yantzer); diva Carlotta Barracuda (Melissa Doty), and--the show’s most obvious stretch of credulity--a villainous drama critic (James Harlow). Everybody knows that drama critics are warm, caring people, no? There’s also what might be the world’s first three-man barbershop singing group.

Kelly’s script has been adapted to include local references (Broadway herself is a reference to the Moorpark Melodrama’s Linda Bredemann), and not all of the songs are by Andrew Lloyd Webber; those from that composer’s recent version now feature humorously altered lyrics by Shupe--one of the improvements over the earlier Melodrama version, in which the Lloyd Webber songs were performed as written.

Notable, too, is the current cast, which features several appealing newcomers to the Melodrama as well as such familiar faces as Harlow, Shupe (playing Bernie as Groucho Marx, another revision from the original) and McDonald. Joy Enright is the director and choreographer; note her stunningly low-budget tribute to Busby Berkeley in “By a Waterfall.” Tim King is the musical director and pianist.

Details

* WHAT: “The Phantom of the Melodrama.”

* WHEN: Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Matinees Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m. Runs through Feb. 18.

* WHERE: Magnificent Moorpark Melodrama & Vaudeville Company Theater, 45 E. High St., Moorpark.

* HOW MUCH: All seats for all shows, $12. Group rates are available for some performances. Visa and MasterCard accepted.

* CALL: For reservations or further information, call 529-1212.