DAZZLING PERFORMANCES BOOST `THE HEIRESS' : THE FACTS.

Byline: Daryl H. Miller Daily News Theater Critic

Cherry Jones is utterly convincing in ``The Heiress'' as an awkward, plain-featured, well-to-do woman who can never be sure who loves her or why. Yet at the same time, Jones' beauty takes your breath away - her physical beauty (which is considerable despite her unflattering makeup and wig) as well as the radiant perfection of her art.

Jones is reason alone to see this revival of ``The Heiress,'' which has been restaged at the Ahmanson Theatre after its triumph in New York. And there's still more to savor in the performances of Frances Sternhagen and Donald Moffat, as well as Gerald Gutierrez's meticulously modulated direction. Jones, Sternhagen and Gutierrez all received 1995 Tony Awards for their work, and the show was named best revival of a play.

As for the script itself, well ... it's a hoary old melodrama adapted from Henry James' novel ``Washington Square'' by Ruth and Augustus Goetz.

First staged in 1947, their adaptation relates the bitter tale of a father and daughter whose lives have been one long string of missed connections and lost opportunities. What each most needs is love, yet they're incapable of giving it to each other.

The story is packed with psychological motivations that are by now hopelessly cliched. The plotting telegraphs events far in advance, and the writing all but hits you over the head to make sure you catch its significance.

No matter. So much care has been lavished on this production - which emerged at Lincoln Center, then moved on to a full Broadway run - that the story succeeds in spite of itself. Each syllable seems pitched for maximum effect, each movement choreographed. This is, in short, a showcase of some of the finest stage technique you will ever see. And after a string of impressive New York stage roles, this is Jones' breakthrough performance. One day, you'll look back and be able to say you saw her when.

The story unfolds in the front parlor of the Slopers' residence on Manhattan's tony Washington Square in 1850.

When Jones first breezes on stage as Catherine Sloper, she seems almost graceful - moving about easily and wittily relating the day's events to her live-in widowed Aunt Penniman (Sternhagen). But those meager social graces will disappear the moment she's in the presence of her stern, disapproving father, Dr. Austin Sloper (Moffat). Her smile will become thin-lipped, her face pinched. Her head will bow, and she will meekly cross her hands in front of her, as though vainly trying to shield herself from the world.

Lost in loss, Dr. Sloper grieves his wife's long-ago passing and privately complains that his daughter lacks her mother's grace and beauty. ``You are good for nothing unless you are clever,'' he says with infinite condescension and bitterness.

Catherine has dutifully endured her father's abuse, but that will change when Morris Townsend (Michael Cumpsty) visits the house and begins courting her. Catherine is at first painfully shy around the dashing, honey-tonged Morris, but she transforms in one amazingly subtle moment when he comes to her defense in her father's presence, finding something to praise after her father has just unthinkingly put her down. Her face loses its dazed expression, relaxing into relief and loving devotion. She's been struck to the soul.

Dr. Sloper rails against their sudden engagement, believing Morris is wooing Catherine only for her money. Trying to open her eyes to what he sees as a deception, he merely succeeds in opening her eyes to his own lack of respect. ``My father doesn't like me,'' Catherine finally says to Morris - stating the matter so simply and with such numb clarity that every heart in the auditorium breaks in unison.

As earnest as all of this is, the script contains ample humor - even in its most heart-rending moments.

The production's biggest drawback is that it has been imported into the enormous Ahmanson, still hampered by some of the worst acoustics in town even after a $17.1 million renovation that was supposed to correct the problem. Past the first few rows, the words dissolve, and the many nuances of movement lose focus.

The show: ``The Heiress.''

Where: Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays and Oct. 10, 17, 24; 7:30 p.m. Sept. 15, 22, 29, Oct. 6; through Oct. 27.

Running time: Two hours, 35 minutes.

Tickets: $15 to $52.50, available at the Ahmanson box office or by calling [phone].

Our rating: Three stars

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Photo: The awkward, well-to-do Catherine Sloper (Cherry Jones) is courted by Morris Townsend (Michael Cumpsty) in the Tony Award-winning ``The Heiress,'' now at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.