By the time you read this, there may not be any tickets left for "Les Misérables." But it's worth your time to call the box office at Diamond Head Theatre, just in case, because this production shouldn't be missed.

This darkly serious musical based on Victor Hugo's moralistic 19th-century novel is long (three full hours), often difficult to follow (covering nearly 20 years and introducing new locales and characters along the way) and heavily scored (there is no spoken dialogue).

Yet audiences continue to flock to the show, suggesting that social and political commentary set against the sweep of historical events can attract a popular audience if the central characters remain approachable and deeply human.

The production now at DHT clearly understands that requirement and deserves to have audiences lining up at the door. There are several expert hands guiding it.

Peter Lockyer (co-director and playing the lead role of Jean Valjean) has Broadway and operatic credentials and has played Marius in professional productions of the show. Melanie Tojio Lockyer (co-director and choreographer) also has a professional performing and directing resume.

Together, they have shaped a sharply disciplined and agile production that looks good, sounds extraordinary and moves with precision. They are aided by musical director Phil Hidalgo, who elicits excellent solo and chorus work from the cast and solid accompaniment that makes us quickly forget the small size of the orchestra.

Designer Willie Sabel compensates for the small stage and the lack of a turntable with multiple arched units that swirl and reassemble into necessary backgrounds and an interlocking barricade that performs the same feat. And while there is no turntable, much of the circular crowd movement and scenery shifts suggest that it's still there. The only awkward staging moment comes from Javert's plunge into the Seine, suggested by his reclining backward between a pair of parted blackout curtains.

Aside from a few disappointing wigs, the generally dusty and shadowy stage is picture perfect, trimmed out with costumer Karen Wolfe's raggedy costumes and Stephen Clear's moody lighting.

Individual performances are first-rate.

Lockyer, who is a mite small and young for the role of Valjean, fills out the character with a powerful voice and a seriously compelling presence. While he clearly has the vocal requirements for the demanding music, he — and everyone else in the cast — gets a subtle assist from an often overlooked technician, the sound designer. Mikel Humerickhouse wonderfully manages the amplification in this production, and nowhere more successfully than on Lockyer's show-stopping "Bring Him Home."

It's a painfully delicate number, requiring Lockyer to lift his voice into an upper range for pristine high notes which must not sound falsetto. The effect is thrilling in this production — capturing a high sentiment, freezing it in time, and taking hundreds of audience members along for the climb. We might claim later that we knew it was amplified and that a bit of reverberation was added, but while it was happening, the audience held its collective breath.

Thomas M. Johnson is also excellent as the conflicted policeman who hounds Valjean throughout the story. He sings with operatic overtones and rises out a context that is already blatantly melodramatic to portray a soul finally broken by its own moribund morality. Convincingly, death can be his only option.

Tricial Marciel and Shawna Masuda have beautiful vocal moments as Fantine and Eponine. Martina Cacciaroni and Elitei Tatafu Jr. are the young lovers Cosette and Marius, and Layton Santos is a noble Enjolras. Douglas Scheer and Cathy Foy-Mahi bring colorful and delightful comic relief as the Thenardiers.

This production of "Les Misérables" neatly demonstrates the excellent outcome possible from the right combination of performance and production talent.

Joseph T. Rozmiarek has been reviewing theater since 1973.