O.C. 'LION KING' MORE THAN WORTHY OF THE LINEAGE.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

THE PUPPETS, the masks, the costumes - especially the costumes - are all still pretty darned spectacular. Still worthy of being lionized. Some things don't change. With Disney's ``The Lion King,'' costume designer Julie Taymor, who is also the production's director, accomplished visual wizardry that nobody else could have pulled off.

The music also still dazzles. And I'm talking about the African rhythms produced and orchestrated by Mark Mancina and Lebo M, not so much the jingly pop tunes lifted by Elton John and Tim Rice from their own animated movie score. Even performed by an understudy (Marvette Williams subbing for Adia Ginneh as lioness Nala), the chilling ``Shadowland'' (credited to Lebo M, Mancina and Hans Zimmer) remains the show's knockout anthem.

Yes, the house is in order in ``Lion King'' land, on tour at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. A humdrum reaction is all but impossible, particularly if you've never seen the show before (and could any regular theater-goer possibly still fit into that category?).

There's the rub, of course. Few stage memories of recent years can match that opening night in Hollywood in the fall of 2000, and especially those first five minutes when the animals of the pride lands - in full anthropomorphic, Taymor regalia - paraded down the aisles of the newly revamped Pantages Theatre to the opening number, ``Circle of Life.'' It was an astonishing bit of pageantry, which single-handedly defined the world of the play and its sounds.

The Pantages is, hands down, a cooler place than OCPAC to see a spectacle musical. And first-night ``Lion King'' novelty can't really be replaced. Only replicated, albeit in no way watered down for the tour. Still, if the audience's reaction is any criteria, there are people in Costa Mesa who have seen this show many more times than yours truly. Talk about a ``Can You Feel the Love Tonight'' love-fest.

This show has never really been about acting. A person can make only so much of an imprint when repeating verbatim lines immortalized in 'toon by the likes of Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane, Robert Guillaume and Whoopi Goldberg. There are no real dramatic supernovas here. Larry Yando is appropriately aristocratic and prissy as the usurping would-be king, Scar. Adam Hunter's scenery-chewing meerkat, Timon, extracts his laughs with all the subtlety of a pile driver. Working with considerably more fussy deftness is Derek Hasenstab, manipulating the puppet Zazu, the hornbill major domo. And Thandazile A. Soni, as baboon high priestess Rafiki, is the production's clear vocal leader.

Budding Brandos or otherwise, all the performers mesh with those amazing visuals and exciting rhythms. Given what Taymor and her team bring to the dance - and given that this is a Disney franchise most valuable player we're talking about - blending in is just about all that's necessary.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

THE LION KING - Three stars

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

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday; through April 24.

Tickets: $23 to $73. Call [phone].

In a nutshell: Still visually the most spectacular show in this or any other town.

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The pageantry and visual invention of ``The Lion King'' have not diminished over the years, as a strong staging at Orange County Performing Arts Center proves.