Melissa Errico plays the title role, with Ciarán O’Reilly portraying her husband, The Rev. James Morrell. Sam Underwood is the impressionable, shy, poetic young Eugene Marchbanks, who becomes smitten with Candida and suddenly casts himself as a rival for her affection. The situation is rather preposterous, except that Errico is absolutely gorgeous and magnetic in the role and Shaw is so adept cleverly making his points about relations between the sexes.

The first act is rather quiet, probably too easygoing, as the characters are delineated and the situation is set up. The mix includes Candida’s father and hypocritical businessman, Mr. Burgess, played colorfully by the ever-delightful Brian Murray, who can make a point with a grimace or mere intonation. There are also Xanthe Elbrick as Prosperine, the reverend’s earnest typist, and Josh Grisetti as the Reverend’s curate, a part so very different from his triumph as the lead in “Enter Laughing.”

Errico builds slowly in her role, but in the second act she and everything else rise into focus. She is captivating as she takes command of the situation, listening to the pleadings of her husband and her unlikely out-of-her-league suitor, at times over-acted by Underwood. Asked to make her choice, she recoils at the thought that she must choose either, flirting with the idea of being her own person apart from men. But choose she does, and in explaining herself, Candida becomes Shaw’s spokeswoman as well as her own. Errico handles her crucial lines with intelligence, charm and precision. O’Reilly rises to the occasion too, as the reverend reveals himself to Candida as the neediest of the rivals, which triggers her affection and recognition of her true position in her marital relationship.