CHILDREN’S THEATER REVIEW : Despite Adults, Girls Are Good ‘Little Women’ : Grown-up interference can’t diminish the youthful cast’s enthusiasm for Louisa May Alcott’s classic, but the drawn-out musical does neglect the needs of a young audience.

Little women to play “Little Women.” Why not?

The Orange County Children’s Theatre answers the question with a cast of child and teen actors and a musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel of how the four March sisters grew up during and after the Civil War.

We might amend that to read sprawling novel --one edition runs 542 pages--and it’s reasonable to wonder if any adaptation, musical or not, can possibly offer a faithful version of such a saga.

Well, these particular little acting women on the auditorium stage of the Westminster Cultural Arts Center do just fine, thank you very much. Led by Cecily Gish’s headstrong, tomboyish Jo, the quartet--including Ellen Hole’s Beth, Darcy Mack’s Meg and Abbe Loomer’s Amy--admirably re-create a family world mixed with tenderness and squabbling.

On the other hand, the adults behind this musical (Larry Blake as director, book writer and lyricist, Randy Woltz as composer and musical director, Jo Lindsay as choreographer) appear to be in way over their heads. The kids are having a ball, but the grown-ups turn what’s intended as a show for older children and (perhaps) very early teens into a dull, drawn-out test of staying in one’s seat.

Especially during an overextended Act Two, the sound of restless kids in the Saturday matinee audience indicated that this show wasn’t really connecting.

Perhaps the family relationships were too complicated. Perhaps there just wasn’t enough fun stuff. And who was that fussy stranger with the German accent who took over the show?

That’s Professor Bhaer (John Blaylock, who’s not bad with the accent), who wins the heart of Jo, now a famous novelist we can all read as Alcott’s self-portrait.

But because adapter Blake cuts a major sequence in the novel--describing how Jo makes it in New York City and meets Bhaer in the process--he has to introduce him and the relationship awkwardly in a family reunion setting.

So it goes for this adaptation, which, except for the opening scenes, strains in the effort to squeeze as much material into as little time as possible and not make it run beyond kids’ endurance. It does anyway, making it not quite fair to Alcott, or to the kids.

*

For the kids on stage, it’s another matter. Although Woltz’s tunes are uniformly forgettable, they never force Gish (who handles most of the singing chores) and her mates to sing beyond their abilities. Gish, in fact, makes a few songs her own, such as the first-act closer, “It’s What I Want,” and the spiritual “I Am Here, Lord.”

Above all, most of the performers bring real individual feeling to characters 130 years removed from their time. It’s fairly startling, for instance, to notice Andrea Hough’s age in the program (14) after you’ve seen her blustery, larger-than-life way with the nagging character of Aunt March. Clearly, director Blake knows how to talk to little women.

Other business could be much more fun, such as Lindsey’s haphazard choreography (though the kids nicely ham it up during a skating scene). And the whole thing could be more fun for the kids in the audience if they were allowed to sit in the front rows; right now, with reserved seating, the little ones have to crane their necks around the grown-ups blocking their view.

There’s a play area just outside the theater, and even a place in the lobby where kids can send their friends in the cast backstage telegrams, but this children’s theater should think a bit more about the children.

* “Little Women,” Westminster Cultural Arts Center, 7571 Westminster Blvd. Today, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Ends Sunday. (Signed performance for hearing-impaired on Sunday.) $5. (714) 502-2244. 2 hours, 10 minutes. Cecily Gish Jo

Ellen Hole: Beth

Darcy Mack: Meg

Abbe Loomer: Amy

Carrie Reck: Mother Marmee

Daryn Mack: Father

Josh Shade: John Brooke

Matt Levine: Larry Lawrence

Andrea Hough: Aunt March

John Blaylock: Prof. Bhaer

Sarah Koehler: Hannah

An Orange County Children’s Theatre production of the musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel. Direction, book and lyrics: Larry Blake. Music and musical direction: Randy Woltz. Choreography: Jo Lindsey. Costumes: Gena Strelow. Set: Greg Barraza. Lights: Matt Cotter. Sound: Dave Hall.