`PHANTOM,' TRAVIS KEEP SHOW ME CENTER BUSY THIS WEEKEND

A masked man who sings operatic banalities set to Verdi and Mozart will be followed to the Show Me Center stage this weekend by a young country music legend who lately has been looking for "A Better Class of Losers."

Ken Hill's original version of "The Phantom of the Opera" will be presented on Saturday, followed on Sunday by Randy Travis, who has recorded 11 No. 1 songs since crashing the country music scene in 1985.

Hosting the two events back-to-back poses no special difficulties for the Show Me Center staff, Events Coordinator Will Lofdahl says. Not if you don't count the 600 pounds of dry ice required for the "Phantom" productions and the small chance of getting any sleep on turn-around night.

Travis' roadies are due to begin unloading their three 50-foot semis at 7 Sunday morning, just a few hours after the "Phantom" crew has left town.

Written and directed by Hill, this "Phantom" is less extravaganza and more comedy thriller than the Andrew Lloyd Webber production still dazzling Broadway theater-goers.

Hill originally adapted the Gaston Leroux novel for a theater in the north of England in 1976. Lloyd Webber saw a later version in London in 1984, and suggested they collaborate on a new production for a West End theater.

Lloyd Webber eventually decided to produce a version on his own. The rest is theater history, but Hill has said he's happy his "Phantom" is "exactly as I feel it should be...There's plenty of room for both our shows."

This "Phantom" may sizzle and pop a bit less than Lloyd Webber's, but the 2 hour-long production still requires two 48-foot trucks to move and a full day to set up. It features a 10-piece orchestra and the famous chandelier, which will be hung somewhere between the scoreboard and the stage.

The musical has been on a tour of one-nighters since 1989, and so far has been through Europe, Singapore, Canada and now the U.S. In this case, the troupe will be coming from a performance in Terre Haute, Ind., and afterward heading for another in Youngstown, Ohio.

A clue to Hill's approach to the gothic horror story of a loony phantom hiding out in an opera house might be found in his directing credits, which include the darkly comic "Sweeney Todd" and "Little Shop of Horrors."

He has said he substituted comedy for the melodrama of the book. "I also tried to write lyrics that sounded like not very good Victorian translations of not very good original libretti," he told an interviewer.

"I sometimes think I did that a bit too well. Some people don't get it and think the lyrics are just bad."

The cast is led by Todd Alan Johnson as the Phantom. Johnson has appeared professionally in "Ziegfeld: A Night at the Follies" and in Cole Porter's "Anything Goes."

Due to the need to restrict sight lines, only 2,814 tickets will be sold for each of the two performances of "Phantom." The center normally seats 7,300 people.

"Phantom" will be presented at 3 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $27.50, $20 and $12.50.

Sunday's performance will be the third visit to the Show Me Center for both Randy Travis and show-mate Steve Wariner.

At 32, Travis could be called the granddaddy of a country music phenomenon, the standard bearer of a traditionalist movement which has brought Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Clint Black to the fore in country music.

His debut album, "Storms of Life," went platinum in 1986 and reinvigorated the pop-sounding music then coming out of Nashville.

His second album, "Always & Forever," stayed at No. 1 for 43 weeks. His latest, "High Lonesome," already has yielded three hits "Better Class of Losers," "I'd Surrender All" and "If I Didn't Have You."

His hit "Forever and Ever, Amen," already rates as a country classic.

Performing on the same show with Travis will be Wariner, whose "A Woman Loves" is riding high on the country charts. Other hits off his most recent album, "I Am Ready," are "The Tips of My Fingers" and "Leave Him Out of This."

The Travis show will begin at 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $17.50.