Deciphering a bilingual Broadway musical may sound like an arduous exercise.

Fortunately, there is nothing laborious about the splendid touring production of "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" at the Paramount Theatre. On the contrary: It is a sweet revelation.

Putting aside for a moment that this show is simultaneously communicated from the stage in American Sign Language (ASL), and in spoken word and song, it is also imaginatively directed, well-acted and beautifully sung.

Yet this recent Broadway version of a prime 1985 musical based on the watershed Mark Twain novel is unique in its adroit integration of two languages. And that adds a new theatrical dimension to an enduring story.

Every moment of "Big River" is accessible to hearing patrons and to those who are deaf but conversant in sign language.

Huck, the pre-Civil War runaway who takes the journey of his young life down the mighty Mississippi, is embodied with high-spirited gusto by deaf actor Tyrone Giordano. Huck's role is voiced, however, by versatile Michael Flanigan, who also serves as the show's narrator, the dry-witted author Twain.

As Huck's companion Jim, an escaped black slave seeking freedom in the North, magnetic David Aron Damane does his own vocalizing while also signing.

And Huck's ne'er-do-well father Pap is played both by Troy Kotsur and Erick Devine, cavorting in comic unison. (Pap is double-trouble anyway, so it fits.)

It takes a scene or two to get used to the various communication styles. But very soon one marvels over the ensemble's seamless, cross-linguistic unity.

Director Jeff Calhoun's Broadway staging (which evolved from an original 2001 version of "Big River" at Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles) keeps the show in captivating motion (with a few slips into overly broad buffoonery). And Ray Klausen's set design is utterly ingenious.

The stage is simply adorned with tall facsimiles of sepia-toned, illustrated pages and the cover from Twain's 1885 novel.

And as the hinged set-pieces open, out tumble colorful incidents, characters and locales from Huck and Jim's odyssey.

Calhoun also often steers our gaze to a simple raft, where the initially mistrustful Jim and Huck share quiet reveries — and nasty run-ins with two charlatans.

In one scam, adeptly condensed in William Hauptman's book for "Big River," the self-crowned rascals sell Jim to a farmer — who turns out to be the uncle of Huck's old pal Tom Sawyer (vigorously enacted by former Seattle performer Benjamin Schrader).

The charms of the Tony Award-honored score for "Big River," by the late Roger Miller are in good hands. From hymns to hoedowns, the homespun tunes are affectingly sung, and set off by conductor Steven Landau's small, capable pit band.

Flanigan offers Huck's songs in a sweetwater tenor that's honey on the ears. Damane's solo "Free at Last" is hearty and moving. And when the two harmonize on the lovely "River in the Rain" and the questing "Worlds Apart," the music gleams and glistens.

Outstanding Gwen Stewart delivers the gospel lament "How Blest We Are" with keening urgency and stunning range.

"Big River" is very suitable for adolescents as well as adults. But as Twain's book does, it uses a derogatory term for blacks in historical context. That's made the novel so controversial in our age, some communities have banned it for its "racist" language.

But in any form, "Huckleberry Finn" is a story of moral outrage and regret over America's racial scars and religious hypocrisy.

As leading black novelist Ralph Ellison wrote of Huck Finn, "He knew, as did Mark Twain, that Jim was not only a slave but a human being [and] a symbol of humanity ... and in freeing Jim, Huck makes a bid to free himself of the conventionalized evil taken for civilization. ... "

mberson@seattletimes.com