`PHANTOM' AS SPELLBINDING THE SECOND TIME AROUND.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Theater Critic

Got the flying chandelier? The fog machines? The fake proscenium arch encrusted with nymphs and satyrs?

What more do you need for Andrew Lloyd Webber's ``The Phantom of the Opera''?

Well, a sinisterly charismatic leading man would be nice. But as the new touring production at the Pantages Theatre demonstrates, it's not absolutely essential. After 10 years and several thousand performances worldwide, ``Phantom'' is a remarkably well-oiled entertainment vehicle, among the most efficient ever built. All it needs is a steady supply of replacement parts and you've got a show that seldom fails to deliver a terrific jolt of pathos and visual splendor.

Add Lloyd Webber's most lavishly introverted score, and ``Phantom'' plays just about equally well in Toronto, New York or Detroit and no doubt in Melbourne, Vienna and Tokyo, too. Though this lushly entertaining pop opera visited Costa Mesa three years ago, Los Angeles hasn't seen ``Phantom'' since its phenomenal four-year run at the Ahmanson Theatre between May 1989 and August 1993. Back then, neither rain, snow, malcontented critics or the Northridge Earthquake was enough to derail the juggernaut.

The show's current four-month booking suggests that L.A. can't get enough of composer Lloyd Webber and lyricist Charles Hart's eerily melodic reflections on sacred and profane love. Consequently, first-time viewers, in particular, may not care that this Phantom (Ron Bohmer) never quite finds his character's darkly seductive essence.

It's no secret that Lloyd Webber always has had a soft spot for freaks of nature, especially those who style themselves as misunderstood geniuses (Evita, Norma Desmond in ``Sunset Boulevard,'' even ``Jesus Christ Superstar''). Lloyd Webber's Phantom, by way of Gaston Leroux's novel, is the prototype of the species. He's at his twisted, tormented best when stricken with a fit of grandiose self-loathing, or plumbing the subterranean depths of ``Music of the Night.''

Though Bohmer's voice once or twice seizes up with frightening rage, he seems altogether too tender, too unthreatening, for the role. His consonants are soft, rather than bitten off, and he sometimes loses his way at the low registers.

Ironically, his counterpart, Sandra Joseph, delivers an unusually feisty Christine, the young opera ingenue who falls under the Phantom's tragic spell. Joseph is one of those ideal Eliza Doolittle types, steely yet outwardly fragile. She really hits her mark with the soaring graveyard confessional, ``Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.''

Hal Prince's staging still has the power to make an audience gasp, as when Christine's dull but virtuous suitor Raoul (Lawrence Anderson) leaps into the fog-enshrouded waters. The opera-within-an-opera parodies come off as comically as ever, assisted by a supporting cast that's never more obtrusive than it needs to be.

With its spooky lighting and towering art deco statues, the Pantages offers a much better atmosphere than the Ahmanson for this show. Unfortunately, atmosphere can't improve the theater's elongated sightlines. But as ``Phantom'' has proven, vision sometimes matters less than seeing the big picture of blockbuster showmanship.

THE FACTS

What: ``The Phantom of the Opera.''

Where: Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays; through Jan. 4.

Tickets: $17 to $72. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three Stars.

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Photo

Photo: Ron Bohmer is the Phantom and Sandra Joseph plays Christine, the object of his affection, in ``Phantom of the Opera,'' at the Pantages Theatre.