The production of Cabaret that ran at the Mechanic Theatre two years ago was edgy and daring, an artistic triumph. The production of Cabaret running for the next three days at the Lyric Opera House is humdrum and uninspired, a major letdown.

The difference between the two is an example in miniature of a troubling trend of the latter staging second-rate shows while charging first-rate ticket prices.

Make no mistake - Cabaret (which traces the relationship between an English honky-tonk singer and an American writer in decadent, pre-Nazi Berlin) is one of the greatest musicals ever written. John Kander's seductive score, Fred Ebb's diabolically clever lyrics and Rob Marshall's inventive, raunchy choreography make the show practically performer-proof, as audiences at high school productions nationwide can attest.

Director Sam Mendes' re-staging, which develops a sub-plot about the romance between an elderly Jewish shopkeeper and his German landlady, made Cabaret even better, if possible. Both the recent show at the Mechanic and the current one at the Lyric use Mendes' version.

Same show, same set, same costumes, same score and choreography. So why such different results?

If anything, the Lyric is a better venue in which to see a show like this. Although it's much larger than the Mechanic (2,564 seats to 1,607), it somehow feels more intimate, with the audience closer to the stage. The theater is a century-old architectural gem, and the acoustics are renowned - which makes the performers' inability to articulate Tuesday even more damning.

And it's not really fair to expect cutting-edge shows at the Lyric, because the two theater houses have different missions. The Mechanic offers an eclectic mix of pre-Broadway tryouts, recent hits in New York, intimate stage dramas and family extravaganzas. The Lyric, on the other hand, primarily stages musical revivals. (Other shows this season include Guys and Dolls and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas; next season's offerings include Miss Saigon and Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot.)

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But revivals vary widely in quality, and for whatever reason, shows at the Lyric for the past few seasons have been plodding and drab, without the standout performances and moments of surprise or shivery delight found with some regularity at the other three professional theaters in Baltimore.

In the case of this Cabaret, many of the lyrics and much of the dialogue was muffled, which is unforgivable in a musical as book-driven as this one. It's impossible for audience members to be drawn in emotionally if they can't understand the actors. And it wasn't just a matter of one performer failing to enunciate - most seemed to mumble. As the Emcee, Christopher Sloan is tall and wraithlike, with the white facial makeup and crotch-grabbing gestures of a demented mime. But Sloan's bravura number, "Money," was almost unintelligible. Ditto for Lucy Sorlucco (Fraulein Schneider) in "So What" and Allison Spratt (Sally Bowles) in "Don't Tell Mama."

And although Spratt summons up the volume to belt out the show's title song, this cast has few big voices and no beautiful ones. At least Spratt conveys an almost frantic effervescence that barely hides her fragility. It's easy to understand why John Byron Holley (Christopher Bradshaw) would fall for her - and why the two would be utterly incompatible.

With a few exceptions, this cast seems comparatively inexperienced, and that may account for some of the problems. But the show's flaws doesn't lie solely with the actors. B.T. McNicholl, who re-created Mendes' direction, builds in portentous pauses so thick they could practically be served with butter and jam. It's particularly grating in the introduction to Cabaret, when Bowles contorts her mouth before spitting out the word "corpse" as though she had just tasted something awful.

Minutes later, McNicholl directs Sloan to say his lines so mechanically that it warns the audience that something BIG is coming, and robs the show's last, stunning moments of their shock value.

As Emcee memorably says, "Money makes the world go 'round," it's not the only element in theater that counts. Let's hope the Lyric starts staging shows worth the price of admission.

Cabaret

Where: Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mt. Royal Ave.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m., 7:30 p.m. Sunday

Admission: $36-$56

Call: 410-481-SEAT