It may be terrific and it may be okay, but love isn't always better the second time around. Neither are dusted off and fluffed up cabaret shows - even such initially good ones as producer Greg Thompson's "New York, New York."

     Thompson's enlarged and reworked "New York, New York" (review date 6/26/99) has opened at Harrah's beautiful South Shore Room at Stateline, Lake Tahoe. The show played Harrah's Reno a season or so ago and would seem a natural for Harrah's larger lake-side venue. But alas, natural is isn't always as natural does - especially, the second time around.

As much fun as sailors have and have always had on shore leave in the Big Apple, the exhilarating Leonard Bernstein musical, "On The Town," on the screen starring Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Jules Munshin, from which Thompson's "New York, New York" springs (along with Jerome Robbins and Bernstein's "Fancy Free"), is hard to capture on stage unless the chemistry is just right, which it isn't with this show. Not that it couldn't be. The cast is excellent and works like gangbusters to please. But the show's running gag that one of the sailors is gay, with all the accompanying stereotypical mannerisms, is a clinker of an idea that drags "New York, New York" into the doldrums of been-there, seen-that dullness whenever it happens, which is a lot.

 There's a fine line humor based on sexual orientation, ethnicity - or whatever, has to walk if it's to be genuinely funny and not just a put-down that hurts some people, while providing laughs (heartfelt, embarrassed or bigoted) for others. It's a line Thompson and production associate Mistinguett, the show's choreographer and designer of costumes, haven't walked with sensitivity or even good show-business sense. "New York, New York" would be a much better show, if it didn't resort to cheap tricks.

      With "New York, New York's" extensive pool of talent, the entertainment possibilities - realized and waiting to be realized - are extensive. The show's frazzled-looking star, impressionist and teller-of-gags Tony D'Andrea, is an old pro who has the timing and pizzazz to sling one-liners faster than they can be received, something the comic never lets an audience live down. He does Rip Taylor better than Rip Taylor. Which is an accomplishment, dubious or otherwise. The cast of seven guys and eight gals is an attractive and skilled singing and dancing troupe that has the presence to make "New York, New York" zing along in high gear. Bernstein's tune,"New York, New York! It's a Wonderful Town" allows the cast to sing, cut loose and dance and they're terrific at all three.

 There's more, of course, much more - some of it good, some of it not so good. A hauntingly sung and danced "Mr. Bojangles" makes a last ditch appearance somewhere in the subterranean depths of a New York jail. Its a very nice moment. The sailors crash a burlesque joint on their journey around town, where there are fewer suggestions of burlesque than there are hollow suggestions of striptease. The show's feartured singer, Karin Carmen, is given largely forgettable songs to sing, but she makes the most of being challenged for a much more than merely creditable job. Perhaps the less said the better about the singing of Ebb and Kander's "New York, New York," which became a mega-hit via Liza Minnelli and Frank Sinatra. The song was belted, rather nicely so, but was capped with the kind of flighty stereotypical admonition - "Eat you heart out Liza!" - that sinks "New York, New York" at virtually every juncture.

 "New York, New York" can be seen at Harrah's South Shore Room at Stateline, Nevada, nightly except Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. For information call 1 800 HARRAHS (427 7247).