Vive ‘Les Miserables’! : Epic Musical, in S.D. at Last, Is Worth Every Minute of the Wait : * Stage: From the costumes to the singing, the $4.2-million production is a first-rate, transcendent theater experience.

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s mammoth, monumental staging of “Les Miserables” has logged thousands of miles since its 1985 premiere at England’s Barbican Center. The musical has played to sold-out audiences in Japan, Australia, Canada and 70 U.S. cities. In New York, “Les Miserables” opened on Broadway in March, 1987, and won eight Tony Awards that year, including best musical.

Now, 12 productions of the musical--all replications of the original show, all under the supervision of original producer Cameron Mackintosh--are running worldwide.

On Tuesday, the show’s third national touring company began its San Diego premiere in a 12-day, 16-performance run at the Civic Theatre. Touring shows are notorious for being bastardized versions of the original staging, but this $4.2-million production stands on its own merits. This is first-rate musical theater, a truly transcendent experience.

“Les Miserables,” written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, was adapted from Victor Hugo’s 1862 epic novel dealing with 19th-Century politics, liberty, love and personal ethics. The story begins and ends with Jean Valjean (Bryan Lynch), but numerous story lines--including a Paris insurrection--unfold within the narrative.

At the onset, Valjean, imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread, vows to begin his life anew after his release from prison. To secure his future, Valjean hides from his past and breaks parole. Soon thereafter, Valjean’s compassion leads him to care for the orphaned Cosette (Marian Murphy), but watching over Cosette constantly jeopardizes his personal freedom.

Policeman Javert (David Jordan) pursues Valjean relentlessly throughout the play. Javert traces Valjean’s movements across three decades, and, in Act II, when the two come face to face in the famous sewer scene, the passion on stage galvanizes the entire Civic Theatre.

Credit co-directors-adaptors John Caird and Trevor Nunn for the phenomenal success of “Les Miserables.” The show depicts an impossible range of emotions and situations, but Caird and Nunn communicate this massive narrative with clarity and imagination. The two-man team

pays meticulous attention to detail throughout this staging, but the show never drags. Every last scene, from the cacophonous barricade battle to Valjean’s tender farewell, is presented thoroughly and convincingly.

Caird and Nunn only helped their cause by surrounding themselves with virtuoso designers. The theatrical spectacle within “Les Miserables” adds an amazing dimension to the overall production.

John Napier’s dynamic rotating set is a brilliant creation, a Gargantuan, amorphous vehicle for drama. Andreane Neofitou’s period costumes--2,800 outfits in all--are splendid and evocative. John Hersey’s lights fluttered occasionally, but his precise, mood-filled design still created countless, memorable visual images.

As far as the music is concerned, the quality is like everything else in the play: first-rate. Schonberg’s sometimes smooth, sometimes choppy music facilitates Herbert Kretzmer’s lyrics well, and everyone in the cast--even child performers Buddy Smith and Talaria Haast--belts out the numbers with beauty and confidence.

Lynch is absolutely superb as Valjean. He teems with passion and vitality throughout the three-hour drama, communicating the heroism of his character with a deft sleight of hand. Further, Lynch’s singing voice is amazing. Blessed with a wide vocal range, Lynch is particularly adept at shifting gears suddenly between anthemic bursts of energy and soft, whispery tones.

Jordan’s portrayal of the single-minded, steel-jawed Javert is perfectly relentless. As the jilted Eponine, Candese Marchese creates a full-textured, tear-jerking performance. J. P. Dougherty and Diana Rogers provide welcome comic relief as Thenardier and Madame Thenardier, and Aloysius Gigl’s depiction of rebel leader Enjolras is both visceral and poetic.

One minor complaint regarding the show: The production reached such a powerful apex in Act I’s closing number, “One Day More,” that the second act seemed almost anticlimactic. In this rousing number, the separate subplots converge for a brief instant and the entire cast joins together in a paean to personal liberty. “One Day More” sent the audience to intermission longing for more, but nothing in Act II matched its passion .

Still, as the play ended, a sustained standing ovation was given.

At long last, “Les Miserables” is in San Diego. Thankfully, the production arrived intact.

“LES MISERABLES”

By Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg. Based on the novel by Victor Hugo. Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg. Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Adapted from the French by Herbert Kretzmer, with additional material by James Fenton. Directed and adapted by John Caird and Trevor Nunn. Musical director is Robert S. Gustafson. Sets by John Napier. Lights by David Hersey. Costumes by Andreane Neofitou. Sound design by Tony Meola/Autograph. Production supervisor is Sam Stickler. With Sarah Barkoff, Jennifer Rae Beck, Craig Bennett, Jeanne Bennett, Ruthann Bigley, Kelly Briggs, Jim Charles, Mary Chesterman, Gilles Chiasson, Jeffra Cook, J. P. Dougherty, Jarrod Emick, Joshua Finkel, Aloysius Gigl, Trisha Gooch, Talaria Haast, Marsh Hanson, Taylor John, David Jordan, Christina M. LaGreca, Bryant Lanier, Ron LaRosa, Scott Logsdon, Cary Lovett, Bryan Lynch, Judy Malloy, Candese Marchese, Marian Murphy, Alan Osburn, Tina Paradiso, Mercedes Perez, Diana Rogers, Ron Sharpe, Timothy Shew, Buddy Smith and Lisa Vroman. At 8 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. Sundays, and 2 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesday, July 17. Through July 20. Tickets are $16 to $47.50. Presented by San Diego Playgoers at the San Diego Civic Theatre, 202 C St. 278-TIXS.