Shuler Hensley, who has a profound, penetrating voice and admirable acting ability, made Tony, the aging California vineyard proprietor, a sympathetic, believable character. His fractured English-Italian accent could easily have turned the character into caricature in the wrong hands, but with Hensley in the role, Tony became a full-bodied, very appealing man whose hunger to find a wife was touching and believable. Loesser advances all the emotions through his score and Hensley was wonderfully up to the singing and acting task.

Laura Benanti as Rosabella is first seen by Tony when she is working as a waitress. He doesn’t speak to her but leaves a love letter and then begins a correspondence with her. Benanti, with a thrilling voice, became most entrancing as his Rosabella, who arrives on the property expecting to marry a younger, handsome man. As the plotting goes, Tony had sent a photo of his foreman, Joe, played by the good-looking Cheyenne Jackson, whom Rosabella initially mistakes for Tony. There are immediate sparks between Rosabella and Joe, which, of course, lead to complications.

The glow in the work comes from the gradual warmth that builds between Rosabella and Tony, with kindness on Tony’s part bridging the age gap. There’s also the power of forgiveness when Tony learns about the one-night stand between Joe and Rosabella and the result, and the practical resolution is the one that ultimately counts.

Loesser brilliantly blends the aspirations he demonstrates for operatic flourish with traditional comedic gambits in the Broadway vernacular. On the one hand there are the luscious songs. To hear Hensley and Benanti sing “Happy to Make Your Acquaintance” and “My Heart Is So Full of You” to each other was to revel in the joy of what can be achieved in the musical form. One can say likewise for the solos, such as Hensley singng “Roseabella” and Benanti singing “Warm All Over” and “Please Let Me Tell You.” Jackson also had a key moment singin “Joey, Joey, Joey.”

On the other hand there was the more conventional Broadway material, thoroughly enjoyable via the character of Rosabella’s waitress friend Cleo, played with entertaining sharpness by Heidi Blickenstaff, who falls for the employee Herman, enjoyably played by Jay Armstrong Johnson. Herman goes through life always smiling no matter who bosses him around, and that annoys Cleo, until he finally shows gumption and takes a swing at someone, leading to the triumphant “I Made a Fist “ number with Cleo. Blickenstaff shined in the role, from the moment early on when she sang “Ooh! My Feet!”

Many may not realize that “Standing on the Corner” comes from “The Most Happy Fella,” and it was given a fun interpretation by a quartet consisting of Johnson, Ryan Bauer-Walsh, Ward Billeisen and Arlo Hill. A large chorus did plenty of singng and dancing to instill additional life into the ambitious production, which, as Encores! shows increasingly do, moved beyond the concert version category.

Jessica Molaskey was effective as Tony’s sister Marie, who tries to turn her brother off the idea of marriage. Marie expresses her emotions in the number “Young People,” but in the end, after a losing battle, there is resignation on her part that her brother must follow his heart.