Cedar City • Longtime devotees of the Utah Shakespeare Festival know the secret to getting the most out of your festival dollar.

It's as simple as this: Don't miss the pre-show discussions, which are held in Southern Utah University's Auditorium Theatre. If you're lucky, you may hear festival founder Fred C. Adams offer delicious background on "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which he's directing.

But the lecture by Michael Bahr, the festival's longtime and enthusiastic education director, before the Fourth of July opening performance of "The Music Man" proved just as valuable. Bahr explained why the musical's author, Meredith Willson, never quite reached the same success he had with his 1957 creation in Harold Hill. The vision of America he captured in "The Music Man," and perhaps attempted to re-create in newer productions, was changing and evolving.

And yet, Bahr explained, what endures is the spirit of Midwest traditions, enriched by a unbridled American optimism. "It's an American fairy tale," Bahr said. "Even if we're Americans who grew up and still live in big cities, all Americans think of themselves as coming from little-city America."

Willson proved that thesis in "The Music Man." And Utah Shakespeare Festival's resplendent production, with Brian Vaughn playing the lead, shows us the myriad ways the playwright pulled it off. Beneath the musical's wealth of hum-worthy tunes, pepped-to-prim dance numbers and exchanges that flirt oh-so-gently with satire, this is a musical brimming with subtexts about the power of hope, the worth of imagination and the transformative power of love.

Yes, you'd be well within your rights to call the story maudlin, but the trade-off is you'd also run the risk of becoming a killjoy who scoffs at the sentiment inside birthday cards.

Every musical lives or dies on the strength of its opening song, and it's evident in every note of "Rock Island" that director Jeremy Mann understands this iron-clad rule. This formidable a cappella number demands expert timing, excellent voices and scene-setting exchanges — all while the cast mimics the shaking of a train ride. It's exceedingly well played here, and that note carries through most of what follows.

By the time Vaughn alights from the train, ready to roll with his sales pitch, the audience is primed for more. This Hill takes to River City, Iowa, with such gusto, you forget he's a snake-oil salesman in disguise.

That's as it should be, but there are times when it seems Vaughn could have let a tad more oil leak out of the ruse on display. With his fingers slowly wrapped around librarian Marion Paroo, played by Laura Griffith, the complaint fades as the scenes progress.

This is expert chemistry, delivered to measure at almost every turn. When Marion's caution over Hill turns to elation, Griffith resists the temptation to turn all gooey, a danger that's inherent in productions of "The Music Man." When wisely side-stepped, as here, the narrative arch of an entire town's transformation becomes all the more persuasive.

Also a marvel is the cast's barbershop quartet, one of Hill's default creations even before he manages to get the boys' band to play Beethoven's Minuet in G. In harmony after melting harmony, the quartet offers the sort of musical magic the play requires. The famous "Broadway counterpoint" between their "Lida Rose" and Marion's "Will I Ever Tell You" in Act II was more than a high point. It was a masterful repose from which the rest of the production could build its full-blooded finale.

"The planets somehow aligned" to make sure the opening production fell on the Fourth of July, Bahr remarked during the pre-show discussion, as the holiday worked into Willson's River City plotline certainly wasn't a coincidence.

It's also no accident that Vaughn, who also serves as the festival's new co-artistic director, took his opening-production performance to heart. Monday's Fourth of July production was replete with an after-show reception of free popcorn, cotton candy and other refreshment, accompanied by a canopy-covered brass ensemble.

As opening performances go, it was an afternoon to remember. Or, as River City's own Mayor Shinn might say, "I couldn't make myself any clearer if I was a buttonhook in the bail water."

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'The Music Man'

Bottom line • Chemistry, musical magic help "The Music Man" hit more than just a nostalgic note.

When • Reviewed July 4; continues through Sept. 2; plays at 2 and 8 p.m. in repertory with Shakespeare's "Richard III," "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and Juliet"; and Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" and Michael Frayn's "Noises Off!"

Where • Utah Shakespeare Festival, 351 W. Main St., Cedar City

Tickets • $22-$71 at 800-PLAYTIX or www.bard.org

Running time • Two hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission

Also • The festival offers ticketed backstage tours and free daily literary and production seminars, play orientations, exhibits and green shows.