Daddy longlegs don’t spin webs, but “Daddy Long Legs” surely does, and viewers of Key City Public Theatre’s magnificently sung production should prepare to be captured in a shimmering tangle of love, letters and lies.

The 2007 musical adaptation of Jean Webster’s 1912 epistolary novel saw its West Coast premiere June 8 at the Port Townsend theater. Under the direction of Brendan Chambers, the play starred a spirited Christa Holbrook as orphan Jerusha Abbott, with a personable Vince Wingerter as her benefactor.

While the original story of “Daddy Long Legs” at its core might not seem like the most progressive choice for today’s climate, the narrative was redeemed through a musical adaptation that was skillfully staged and sincerely executed.

At the play’s opening, orphan Jerusha is notified that a trustee who goes under the alias “John Smith” will fund her college education. All he asks in return is that she write him one letter a month informing him of her progress at college. Jerusha, however, will never hear from him.

“These are his orders / this is his game,” she sings.

And what a game it is.

The mysterious man she dubs “Daddy Long Legs” – based on a shadow she glimpses of him – is not, in fact, the 83-year-old she imagines but a handsome bachelor by the name of Jervis Pendleton, who soon becomes smitten by the clever Jerusha. Without revealing his identity as her benefactor, Jervis soon arranges to meet Jerusha, and love blossoms between the two.

All the while, Jerusha continues to pour her heart out through letters, telling him anything and everything, never guessing to whom she is writing. As the story unfolds, and as Jervis is made aware of Jerusha’s every feeling – including her thoughts on him – he begins to take a more active role in steering her life.

ACTING/SET

As Jerusha, Holbrook sparkles with her powerful, pitch-perfect performance. From the moment we hear the sharp sound of her boots marching onto the stage as she sings about her “perfectly awful day,” Holbrook presents a plucky and persevering young woman. In the first 10 minutes, she deftly displays the breadth of her acting skills and, in Holbrook’s hands, the audience see “poor Jerusha Abbott” never as a victim of her circumstances but always as a fighter. Viewers sympathize and delight with her intellectual and romantic awakenings. And her singing was beautiful throughout – “I’m a Beast” and “Graduation Day” especially were moving.

Wingerter, as Jervis, endears himself to us. However unhinged we may be about “the color of his lies” and his admitted duplicity (“I’m ashamed of the man I’ve become”) it’s impossible not to feel affection toward his smitten, fumbling ways, especially when he’s overcome with jealousy, leading to some of the play’s most comical moments (damn that boy Jimmy!). Wingerter’s charming, elegant performance rescues a character about whom viewers might otherwise feel put-off. His solo, “Charity,” was especially touching and garnered much applause from the audience opening night.

A small trio of musicians led by musical director Linda Dowdell on piano huddled in the on-stage orchestra pit, always complemented and never overpowered the singers with their lyrical accompaniment. Maryann Tapiro played cello, with Michel Townsend acting as both guitarist and, on occasion, a postman, flower-bearer and diploma giver.

The staging of the early 20th-century story-turned-play is significant when considering the relationship dynamics between Jervis and Jerusha. The handsome set, designed by theater artistic director Denise Winter, is presented as Jervis’ world. Spatially, he dominates: His book-lined office takes up a majority of the stage while Jerusha’s world (a much more undefined space) exists only on the periphery; the space surrounding it, and set just beneath, is his.

Yet Jerusha’s operating always on the periphery places her directly in front of the audience.

She is in the forefront, he in the background. And while Jervis may be influencing and manipulating Jerusha’s life, the staging often makes Wingerter seem like a postscript to Holbrook’s commanding presence.

She, after all, is the play’s narrator. She writes the story, one letter at a time.

LITERARY

Lovers of literature especially will delight in the musical. Its writers, Paul Gordon and John Caird, are already invested in productions based on classic works, and their passion for literature is evident.

Jerusha sings about the books she is reading – including famous orphan stories “Great Expectations” and “Jane Eyre.” She goes into raptures about the pastoral New England scenery in a very “Anne of Green Gables”-esque fashion and states at one point when speaking about Jervis, “His family is so proud, and I’m so proud,” which sounds like a line that fell out of “Pride and Prejudice.” And the musical number “Mr. Girl Hater” evokes “Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man” from “My Fair Lady” – indeed, “Daddy Long Legs” is rather Pygmalion in style.

The most poignant literary reference, however, is the melodically haunting, repeated refrain of “O Captain! My Captain” – a reference to the elegy by Walt Whitman. The phrase is introduced early on by Jerusha in a letter and adopted by Jervis who echoes the refrain. It is in moments like this that Jervis and Jerusha appear to be in perfect harmony, mutually leading each other throughout the course of the play and ultimately to their final union.

The musical adaptation of “Daddy Long Legs” aims to charm, and in the voices of Holbrook and Wingerter, it does just that.