Part musical revue, part biography of the American-born French superstar, writer-director Daryl D. Brooks’s new production sparks with the same energy and enthusiasm apparent in the surviving footage of his subject’s performances.

He deftly captures both the alluring charisma of the real Disney as well as the private mania inherent in a person whose response to a world of death, conflict and uncertainty is a seemingly endless supply of platitudes about “magic” and “dreams.”

This ensemble assembled by director Tom Mullen is nigh flawless, each with a well-tuned pop voice and instrumental acumen, and together possessing a strong chemistry that makes the performances feel lived in.

There is, for instance, not a single true aria in the entire span of composer and founding Police member Stewart Copeland’s score. Instead, it favors a more organic, Wagnerian melding of recitative and song which works well to keep the plot moving at a nice pace.

But of course, the bulk of the accolades must go to soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role. Norma, a role once described by the great soprano Lilli Lehmann as more taxing than all three Brünnhilde roles in Wagner’s Ring Cycle combined, is here embodied with a delicate grace and strength, helped along by costuming that make Radvanovsky literally glow.

Though many readers have probably seen video recordings of the group (As of this writing, nearly the entire show can be found on Youtube, that’s how ubiquitous it is), the live experience truly contains a palpable magic that a recording cannot capture.

Though no less epic in scope, the Lyric has jettisoned the typical lush, period sets in favor of a modernist design by Tobias Hoheisel that suggests both the monolithic nature of classical architecture and the weighty severity of a Cold War-era fortress, all concrete and rebar.

The challenge inherent in a performance like this is to bring across the distinctly British humor of Coward’s writing to an American audience... which can seem to modern ears almost painfully twee.