Old Musical in Madrid

"Magnificent!" exclaimed the critics. "Spain has never seen anything like this." Spain had not. While bullfight tickets went begging, the carriage trade last week was paying up to five times the normal price to squeeze into Madrid's musty old Teatro de la Zarzuela and see the greatest hit in Spanish theatrical history. The hit: Al Sur del Pacifico. Translation: South Pacific.

Despite wrenching translations and ironfisted Spanish censorship, the show retained a surprising amount of its pace and charm. Spain's top scenic designer, Sigfredo Burman, speckled the mythical isle of Bali Ha'i with miniature lights that blink by night, put ripples in the sea, installed clouds that moved swimmingly across pink-and-azure sky. and devised ocean waters to lap seductively at the sandy shores.

Cardboard Jungle. Luis Sagi-Vela, the producer, played the fine old Ezio Pinza role of Emile de Becque with rakish zest (in rust-red plantation suit, blue-and-white-striped shirt, solid beige tie). And Mary Martin's sawed-off dungarees were curvaceously filled by Actress Marta Santa-Olalla. Although she sported the short-clipped Martin hairdo, she lacked something of the girl-next-door appeal.

Some of Madrid's changes were definitely for the worse. Offstage noises were technically poor; e.g., the departure of a jeep sounded more like the idling of a Flying Boxcar. Famed Mexican-born Actor Gustavo Rojo, as Lieut. Cable, was politely proper in his love scene with Liat (Maria Rey). And the lonely sailors were so surprisingly paired off with girls that the stage was cluttered with shapely dancers not quite sure of what they were there for. They were there because the censor ruled that a disproportionate number of men to women on stage smacked of homosexualism.

"One Clear Night." The slangy American idiom of the lyrics was bound to be mangled in translation. Surprisingly, the Spanish version came up with some good approximations: e.g., "I'm as corny as Kansas in August, I'm as normal as blueberry pie" came out "I'm as happy as a cat in January, as the butterfly in April . . ." The "Wonderful Guy" became "My Ideal Type." and "Some Enchanted Evening" was changed to "One Clear Night." Bloody Mary was still "The Girl I Love," but the punch line of the song, "Now ain't that too damn bad" was switched to "My tropical dream." When it came to "What ain't we got? We ain't got dames!" the translator settled for "What is lacking here? A woman!"

Al Sur del Pacifico plays twice daily, seven days a week, with the SRO sign always out. The 50 members of the cast, most of them accustomed to doing comic opera before half-filled houses, go home gaily after work at 2 a.m. The pay for top stars: about $20 a day.

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