THEATER REVIEW : ‘Drood’ Is Pure Fun as Music and Mystery : Rupert Holmes’ adaptation of Dickens’ work is a comic salute to the Victorian-Era English music hall.

“The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” Rupert Holmes’ adaptation of Charles Dickens’ unfinished work, is a comic musical salute to the Victorian-Era English music hall. Now playing at the Conejo Players Theater in Thousand Oaks, it couldn’t be more fun.

Introduced by a master of ceremonies, or “chairman,” a troupe of players presents its version of “Drood” with jokes and song-and-dance numbers. The players step in and out of character, race through the audience, and may lead the assembled crowd in a chorus of “Happy Birthday” if it’s warranted. If this all sounds more than a little like a typical night at the Moorpark Melodrama, it is--but on a much higher level.

And, at the end of the show, each night’s audience finishes Dickens’ work by voting on who committed the crime, as well as clearing up a couple of other puzzles.

(By curious coincidence, two of the audience’s choices at Friday’s opening were the same as those voted by the Broadway opening-night audience and preserved on the original cast LP; the compact disc version allows for the listener to program numerous endings.)

The show is marvelously cast, with too many fine actors to mention here. Among the audience favorites, suspects all, were Mark Reyes, playing the chairman in a wheelchair (his injury, unrelated to the play, is real); Lady Jan Faulkner and Gabriel de la Vega as a suspicious-acting pair of visitors from Ceylon; Louis Cardena as an odd character named Bazzard; Bill Hillstrom and “Spanky” as a clownish stonecutter and his idiot assistant; Eleanor Brand as mistress of an opium den, and Gene Bernath as a minister.

The obvious villain, John Jasper, is played with mustache-twirling glee by Stuart Berg. Bailey Spencer and Jennifer Beall star as the young lovers: Drood himself and Rosa Bud.

Holmes’ songs aren’t the music hall parodies one might expect under the circumstances, and they certainly aren’t the smooth pop or deranged rock one might expect from the composer of “Escape (the Pina Colada Song)” or the Buoys’ 1970 hints-of-cannibalism “Timothy,” two of Holmes’ earlier credits. Rather, the score for “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” is faux-Sondheim, and thus more clever than memorable.

Two songs in particular, the patter-ridden duet between Jasper and the mayor, “Both Sides of the Coin,” and the elaborately staged “Don’t Quit While You’re Ahead,” stand out.

Speaking of which, Verne Brizendrine’s choreography is sensational throughout, the actors’ singing voices are consistently fine, and the show--set by Marjorie Berg and John Holroyd with costumes by Elizabeth Holthofer and Crystal St. Romain--looks terrific.

Add to all that a 12-piece orchestra under the direction of Adam Lasnik, playing better than usual for local theater, and you’ve got what may be the most watchable show of the year. “Drood,” which takes place in the Christmas season, is good for all ages too, although young children might not be interested and the rest of the audience would appreciate you not bringing them.

Details

* WHAT: “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”

* WHEN: 8:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays; through Dec. 18.

* WHERE: Conejo Players Theater, 351 S. Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks.

* ETC: $10 Fridays and Saturdays, $8 Thursdays and Sundays; group, children’s and seniors’ discounts available. For reservations or more information, call 495-3715.