O.C. THEATER : Why’d It Take Years to Get Here? : Spokesmen for those involved say the delay has mostly to do with the logistics of mounting a show as elaborate as ‘Les Miz.’

The arrival of “Les Miserables” in Orange County--6 years after its opening in London, 4 1/2 years after New York, 3 years after Los Angeles, 2 years after Cleveland-- once again raises the question of why it takes so long for some Broadway mega-hits to find their way to Costa Mesa.

Among the no fewer than 60 other U.S. cities that got an earlier look at “Les Miz” are Champaign-Urbana, Ill.; Bloomington, Ind.; Cincinnati, East Lansing, Mich., and Birmingham, Ala. Outside the United States, the list includes Reykjavik, Iceland, where the show opened on Dec. 26, 1987.

Spokesmen for the organizations involved say the answer is complicated and has mostly to do with the enormous cost, complexity of mounting and transporting such an elaborate production. When the company for this $4.2-million “Les Miz” production finally did arrive in Costa Mesa this week, it did so in 48 trucks.

With most Broadway musicals, the Orange County Performing Arts Center is considered a touring venue in a third-tier market. After a show becomes a hit on Broadway, the next step usually is to arrange extended engagements with “sit-down” companies that move into theaters in major cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago, where they settle in for as long as they sell tickets.

For there to be a profitable bus-and-truck tour of short-term engagements for a slimmed-down production, the smaller cities it travels to must be able to sustain engagements of at least one week, and the cities must be relatively close together. Thus, this production of “Les Miz,” the first to tour the West Coast, will travel from Costa Mesa to San Diego and then to Portland, Ore.

A further complication is scheduling. Because many places, as the Center does, depend on subscription sales to support these runs, the runs must be scheduled from six to 12 months in advance. This cuts down on the ability to take advantage of unforeseen opportunities. In July, 1989, for instance, the sit-down company of “Les Miz” ended a 13-month run in Los Angeles but would not begin previews in San Francisco until Oct. 20. But coming to the Center in the interim was not an option, according to the show’s management.

Yet another factor is the Center’s relationship with the Pace Theatrical organization in New York, which books and sometimes produces musicals for about 20 venues nationwide. A Center spokesman asserts that the Center is one of the linchpins of this arrangement, since it “initiated the arrangement that brought Pace to the West Coast . . . .” “Because of our longstanding and good relationship with Pace, and our potent grosses,” the spokesman said, “we have significant influence on what comes to the West Coast.”

But this influence is limited, and indeed it begins to wane somewhere between the Mississippi River and the Rockies as the distances between tour stops stretch out. Thus, the multiple visits of shows such as “Cats” and “Starlight Express” years after their Broadway openings and national tours.

Does all this mean we’ll have to wait until 1995 or ’96 before we see this season’s Tony-winning “The Will Rogers Follies” or “Miss Saigon”? Maybe not, inasmuch as the scheduling dynamic occasionally works in favor of the Center. Audiences in Costa Mesa got to see “Grand Hotel” before it opened in Los Angeles and hit revivals of “Gypsy” and “Fiddler on the Roof” before they opened on Broadway.

What it boils down to is: “If a Broadway show goes on a national tour, we will usually get it right away,” the Center spokesman said. “But if it elects to sit down, like ‘Phantom,’ for example, then who knows?”

For the less patient: “Phantom” star Michael Crawford will appear Sunday at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

* “Les Miserables” opens tonight at 8 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $19 to $45. Through July 7. Information: (714) 556-2787.