TEN TENORS DON'T ADD UP TO MANY THRILLS.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Critic 

`The tenor always gets the girls,'' one of Australia's Ten Tenors joked on the ensemble's opening night Tuesday at the Pantages Theatre.

They may get the girls, but they don't get the right songs.

The sprawling gang of fashionable young lads showed great promise individually and together in its debut Los Angeles date, the start of 16 shows in Hollywood through Nov. 5. The only letdown was the group's choice of bland material and equally colorless presentation.

The Tenors' concept is a good one: 10 guys with obvious talent remaking pop songs, show tunes and arias as multivoiced ensemble pieces. It worked wonderfully on the evening's sole showstopper, a fine version of Queen's complex ``Bohemian Rhapsody.''

But elsewhere, particularly on new songs by film composer John Barry, dreadful lyrics and stodgy music rooted this five-a-side throng of Aus-

sies in their 20s and early 30s deeply in the past.

As one of the Tenors themselves noted while introducing a version of Simon & Garfunkel's ``The Boxer,'' the song (and most of the others Tuesday) had been written before the members of the Ten Tenors were even born.

One sensed during the often entertaining 90-minute show that much potential was being wasted on treacle. It takes talent to carry off something as potentially fraught as 10 singers on stage at once, and it would benefit the act if it took chances with contemporary material rather than tired-sounding pop ballads.

Along with the Queen number, a highlight of the night was the beautifully rendered theme from the French film ``Les Choristes,'' in which all 10 tenors were put to perfect harmonic use.

Staging was minimal, choreography almost nonexistent and humor rarely evident. Also, the act was so tightly scripted that one wished for an ad lib or at least a glaring mistake.

Yet, not a hair was out of place Tuesday, which may be the Ten Tenors' fundamental appeal, along with the banal material (all of which doesn't seem to hurt Celine Dion).

One further note: If you have even the slightest hint of an obsessive compulsive personality, you will find yourself, as I did, counting and recounting the 10 singers on stage throughout the night for verification.

There were 10, but one still had the sneaking suspicion that an 11th was hiding out backstage.

Fred Shuster, [phone]

[e-mail]

THE TEN TENORS - Two and one half stars

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

When: 8 p.m. today and Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday; through Nov. 5.

Tickets: $25 to $58. [phone]. ticketmaster.com.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Queen's ``Bohemian Rhapsody'' was a highlight of the Ten Tenors' opening Tuesday night at at the Pantages Theatre.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer