STAGE REVIEW : This Production Does ‘Les Miserables’ Justice : There are some stagy gestures and weak music, but the dazzling effects are surprising and wonderful, and the show is ultimately moving.

There’s a moment in the first act of “Les Miserables” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center that encapsulates the theatrical power of this operatic adaptation of Victor Hugo’s great novel:

The beleaguered protagonist, Jean Valjean, realizing that he must reveal himself in order to save an innocent man from suffering in his stead, is transported instantly, at the zenith of his soliloquy, to a French tribunal. There, he confesses his identity--and flees his fate. The transformation in and out of the court, which encompasses an entire chapter of Hugo’s epic, takes only a few moments. The staging is brilliant, effective and dizzyingly fast.

Throughout the production, John Napier’s fabulous set, under David Hersey’s gorgeous lights, is by quick turns a prison, a highway, a field, an inn, and on and on; the scenes change breathlessly in a turntable exposition. In a string of solo confessionals balanced by populous production numbers, the plot is served up with surgical precision.

Valjean, released from prison after 16 years, breaks his parole and begins a new life of virtue under an assumed identity. He rescues a dying prostitute from the clutches of the dogged police inspector Javert, and promises her that he will care for her daughter, Cosette. Valjean buys Cosette from the wicked Thenardiers, who have used her as a drudge while pampering their own daughter, Eponine. Pursued by Javert, who has discovered his real identity, Valjean escapes with Cosette to Paris and raises her there.

In Paris, where Cosette has grown to young womanhood, an aging Valjean escapes a trap laid for him by Thenardier, who, with his wife and daughter, has fallen on hard times. A student named Marius is on the scene and falls in love with Cosette.

And that’s not even all of Act I!

The second act focuses in on some longer scenes and is easier to follow. The production suffers minutely from the ghosts of past incarnations--there are certain stagy gestures and an absence of personal rhythms--but the final effect is moving.

At the center of the whirlwind is Brian Lynch as Valjean. Although he lacks the dynamism to carry the beginning of the show, his a soft and gentle Valjean with a fine voice: His duets with young Cosette (Sarah Barkoff), in which he partners her tremulous pitch so carefully, are honestly sweet. Valjean’s dark past as a resourceful, daring and dangerous convict is never apparent in Lynch’s interpretation, but in the second act, as an old man, Lynch fills the role with dignity.

As Javert, David Jordan sings with dark force and presents an imposing figure. If his tragic fate elicits no sympathy, it is as much the fault of the Reader’s Digest format as any lack in Jordan’s performance.

Gilles Chiasson brings a freshness to Marius, and little Taylor John as the gamin Gavroche practically pops off the stage with his piping voice and bold swagger.

But the true standouts of the production are J.P. Dougherty as Thenardier and Candese Marchese as Eponine. Dougherty is delightfully repellent as a man who simply enjoys being bad. Marchese’s powerful, pop-artist singing gives her solos a stamp that distinguish them from the rest of the score, which is characteristically repetitive and unhummable.

The libretto is pedestrian, with predictable lyrics, but some of those stage effects are truly wonderful and surprising. Certainly, a grand, well-equipped theater such as the Performing Arts Center is the only place to see a show so dependent on technical wizardry. There is a two-page plot synopsis in the program, and if you haven’t read the novel, you would do well to read this condensation before the lights dim. Theatrical pyrotechnics aside, Les Miserables is a story worth going home with.

‘LES MISERABLES’

The Orange County Performing Arts Center and Pace Theatrical Group Inc. present Cameron Mackintosh’s production of “Les Miserables” by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, based on the novel by Victor Hugo. Music by Schonberg. Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Directed by John Caird and Trevor Nunn. Designed by John Napier. Lighting by David Hersey. Costumes by Andreane Neofitou. With Brian Lynch, David Jordan, Lisa Vroman, J.P. Dougherty, Diana Rogers, Candese Marchese, Taylor John, Gilles Chiasson, Marian Murphy, Aloysius Gigl, Craig Bennett, Ron Sharpe, Douglas Webster, Ron LaRosa, Alan Osburn, Kelly Briggs, Jarrod Emick, Joshua Finkel, Cary Lovett, Marsh Hanson, Bryant Lanier, Mary Chesterman, Jeanne Bennett, Judy Mallow, Jeffra Cook, Mercedes Perez, Trisha Gooch, Jennifer Rae Beck, Ruthann Bigley, Sarah Barkoff, Talaria Haast and Buddy Smith. Performances Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2, through July 7. Tickets: $19 to $45. (714) 740-2000 or (714) 480-3232.