Modesty has its virtue

Like its heroine, who finds her place in the world only after much searching and heartache, the stage musical “Little Women” appears, finally, to be coming into its own.

After a long, contentious development, the show opened on Broadway in January to yawning reviews and lasted just four months. On tour, however, “Little Women” -- with its beloved if oft-told story and chamber-musical-size proportions -- is freed of Broadway expectations, leaving it better able to survive on charm, spunk and sheer openheartedness.

Begun in San Diego last week, the national tour is continuing with a two-week run at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The script, by Allan Knee, delivers the essential plot points of Louisa May Alcott’s novel about four girls coming of age in a Concord, Mass., household run by their mother while their father-provider is off serving as a chaplain in the Civil War.

The writing tends not to call attention to itself, except when the girl-power dialogue sounds too contemporary or wise-mouthed. Honestly, if a Victorian mom had tried to console one daughter for another’s behavior, would she really have stood for “It’s not your fault ... though you did give birth to her” in reply?

Jason Howland’s music contains occasional bursts of 1860s Americana but, for the most part, sounds like a lot of contemporary Broadway pop. It floats along, momentarily stirring the heart, then promptly evaporates. Mindi Dickstein’s lyrics dutifully, though none too imaginatively, echo the story’s emotional beats.

Script and score work together nicely, though, to distinguish this umpteenth version of “Little Women” as a lovely ode to the creative process. As aspiring writer Jo (Kate Fisher) makes her journey through privation, loss, solidarity and romance, she experiences everything keenly. The cumulative effect: a quiet thrill, and possibly even a catch in the throat, when she finally realizes that the greatest truth she can commit to paper is the story of life among her sisters -- romantic Meg (Renee Brna), selfless Beth (Autumn Hurlbert) and willful Amy (Gwen Hollander).

Maureen McGovern, one of the Broadway production’s headliners, is a nurturing presence as the mother, or Marmee, as the girls call her. When the ‘70s pop diva turns her rich contralto -- a voice like dark honey -- to her two big ballads, the show hits emotional highs.

Fisher is still more compelling. Looking a bit like Winona Ryder and sounding a lot like New York star Sutton Foster, she has fire in her voice and electricity in her bearing.

The unfussy stagecraft -- painterly landscapes, floating curtains, gliding furniture -- is understated yet artful, proving that modesty is indeed a virtue. In this, the sensitivity of director Susan H. Schulman -- who brought another classic girls story, “The Secret Garden,” to the stage 14 years ago -- is everywhere evident.

The cast of 10 seems to multiply into multitudes, and the pit band of 12, playing orchestrations by Kim Scharnberg, sounds bigger than it is.

Having survived a fire and hasty refurbishment in San Diego, this production has already lived a rich life. Heaven knows what it will encounter between now and next August, when it is expected to reach L.A. Yet like the March sisters, it seems able to handle whatever comes its way.

*

‘Little Women’

Where: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays

Ends: Sept. 18

Price: $21.25 to $64.75

Contact: (714) 556-2787 or www.ocpac.org

Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes