THEATER REVIEW / ‘JACQUES BREL’ : Alive and Well : The Ventura College Main Theater becomes a Parisian cabaret for this revue of the Belgian songwriter’s work.

In a nice turn of showmanship, Ventura College’s Main Theater stage has been transformed for two weeks into something between a coffeehouse and cabaret for a clever production of the 1968 show “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.”

Though the title is no longer entirely true--Brel died in Paris about 13 years ago--its spirit remains intact.

Mort Shuman, an American songwriter who was responsible in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s for such youth-oriented hits as “A Teen-Ager in Love,” “Turn Me Loose” and “Viva Las Vegas,” must have had an epiphany when he first heard the work of Belgian songwriter Brel.

Here was something of substance: songs about real people living on the dark edge of life--a man who dreams of becoming a pimp, homeless people, an out-of-work sailor forced to subsist on a diet of fish heads and tails.

Shuman became a Brel acolyte, learning French to translate the man’s work into English.

Meanwhile, another American, Eric Blau, had mounted a production of Brel songs. “Oh, Oysters” was presented at a Greenwich Village nightclub called the Village Gate.

Brel and Shuman, probably inevitably, joined forces to create “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.”

Launched at the Village Gate with Shuman as one of the four singers, the show became a sensation and helped introduce Brel (whose best-known composition, not in the show, remains “Ne Me Quittez Pas,” known in English as “If You Go Away”).

When you enter the Ventura College Main Theater through a side door, you wind up literally on the stage, which is set up with small tables and folding chairs. Waiters and waitresses take your order for tea and croissants. A guitarist strums softly, and a patron begins reading poetry from his seat, somewhere in the middle of the room.

The guitarist moves to a smaller stage at the front of the “cabaret,” where he joins other musicians who play piano, bass, synthesizer and drums. There’s a flurry of noise from one side of the theater, and the show begins as two men and two women move through the audience and take the stage.

One thing that “Jacques Brel” isn’t: quiet. The four fine singers stake the entire cabaret as their territory. In keeping with the low-down nature of the material, there’s a lot of liquid tossed around, and sometimes--well, often--it’s spit.

The 23 songs largely duplicate those on the original cast album, with this production adding “Girls and Dogs” (a sexist compare-and-contrast exercise sung by the rowdy men) and eliminating “You’re Not Alone.”

Of the singers, Linda Ottsen is the more patrician and Jennifer Eaton the more worldly. Steven Osburn and Joe Ehlinger appear to be solid, working-class types and sing with Gallic joviality.

Director Gary Mascaro and scene designer Willy Eck work wonders with the space and atmosphere, and costume and makeup designer Abra Flores is to be commended for her imaginative work. The band plays splendidly.

“Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” is, among its other virtues, a perfect date. It’s inexpensive (drinks and dessert for two come in at under $5, including a generous tip), a bit sexy and positively reeking of intelligence. It will give your partner the impression that you’re worldly as all get out.

* WHERE AND WHEN

“Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” concludes this weekend at Ventura College’s Main Theater, Loma Vista Road in Ventura. Show time is 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $7 for students and seniors, and $5 each for groups of 10 or more. The college advises that the show is not suitable for children under 16. For reservations or information, call 654-6459.