ABT Returns With a Dreary ‘Manon’ : Dance review: Kenneth MacMillan’s dramatically slow work has its Southern California premiere at Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Too bad it’s not called “Lescaut.”

With the dynamic Gil Boggs in the role of the predatory, stage-managing brother Lescaut, Kenneth MacMillan’s “Manon” shifted its central focus.

As danced Tuesday by American Ballet Theatre at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Boggs commanded attention whenever he was onstage, unexpectedly overshadowing the other characters danced by Cynthia Harvey and Guillaume Graffin.

At least for two acts.

Then MacMillan killed off Lescaut, and the focus rightfully returned to the other two.

The Southern California premiere of the New York company’s first full-length version of “Manon” opened a six-day engagement at the Center that will also include a mixed-repertory program. Derived from the original Abbe Prevost 18th-Century novel, MacMillan’s “Manon” nevertheless follows the plot of Puccini’s opera “Manon Lescaut” rather faithfully, more faithfully than Massenet’s earlier opera “Manon.”

But MacMillan opted for a pastiche Massenet score (orchestrated and arranged by Leighton Lucas and Hilda Gaunt), which incorporates nothing from the opera. Against Massenet’s limpid salon music, however, the choreography too often looked overwrought. On the other hand, it would probably look overwrought no matter what the music.

MacMillan carried over some of the techniques he had used in the earlier story ballet, if not, as in the case of the fright-wigged prostitutes, some of the characters.

Much attention was given to create a sense of milieu, particularly unsubtle social, political and economic oppression. With lots of bits of busy-ness on the sidelines to illustrate heartless class struggle, MacMillan actually often looked preoccupied with trees at the expense of the forest.

Extraneous characters danced up a storm and ate up time in the slow-paced narrative. Sometimes the choreography was strikingly ungainly, as in the foot lift assists in the pas de trois of Manon, Lescaut and Monsieur G.M. In some of his most poignant moments--the deported prostitutes arriving in Louisiana, for instance--MacMillan undercut his own best interests: in this case with silly synchronized group head-rolls or having all the women fall down at the same time.

The four central pas de deux required much athleticism, which Harvey as Manon and Graffin as Des Grieux made look more like hurdles to be overcome than opportunities for emotional expression.

In fact, until the final act, the rapport between Harvey and Graffin was hardly ideal. She was cool and elegant and more persuasive in moments dedicated to the high life than to the love she was supposed to show toward her lover. Graffin was noble in the character’s protracted passive suffering, but somewhat troubled in technique.

Both fortunately came alive in the final scenes of murder, madness and death in Louisiana.

In the thankless role of Lescaut’s Mistress, Kathleen Moore managed to keep her dignity and technique intact, even in the parodistic duet with the drunken Lescaut, a prototype of the women-will-endure-anything-from-an-abusive-man duet that MacMillan raised to dubious heights in “Mayerling.”

Michael Owen made Monsieur G.M. a true sophisticate. Ethan Brown was a properly heartless Jailer, Lucette Katerndahl a giddy Madame. Robert Underwood, the Beggar Chief, offered some of the clearest, unsmudged turns in the air all evening.

The women of the corps managed the jejune prostitute dances well enough, despite the requisite hitching up of their dresses every four measures. The male corps showed similar strength as gallants and dandies. Someone should teach the soldiers how to march, however.

Nicholas Georgiadis designed the oppressive orange rug-remnant scenery. Thomas R. Skelton lit the scenes warmly. Charles Barker conducted an alert Pacific Symphony with clarity and elegance, if with low-powered energy.

One wants to be a booster for the company during its current financial struggles. Quoted in an essay in the program booklet, ABT artistic director Kevin McKenzie thanks his dancers for giving up 10 weeks of work (only 10?) to help the company “contain costs.” He says financial conditions would have been even worse without the bookings last year at the Center.

In fact, the company as a whole danced strongly and looked committed to the threadbare narrative. The opening night cast will appear with two other sets of principals in performances of “Manon” Friday through Sunday. A mixed bill is set today.

* American Ballet Theatre will dance works by James Kudelka, Twyla Tharp and Natalia Makarova (after Petipa) today at 8 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. The company will dance MacMillan’s “Manon” Friday through Sunday at 8 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets, $18 to $55, through Ticketmaster, (714) 740-2000 or (213) 480-3232, or at the Center, (714) 556-2787.