A Review of "The Most Happy Fella," at the Goodspeed Opera House Diane Sobolewski At left, Mamie Parris as Rosabella and Bill Nolte as Tony in "The Most Happy Fella." At right, Eric Ulloa, Danny Lindgren and Kevin Vortmann, "watching all the girls go by." It's been noted that in the age of cellphones, the romance between Romeo and Juliet would not end in tragedy. But add the Internet to the plot of "The Most Happy Fella," and the romance never happens. An immigrant farmer might still be captivated by a young, pretty hash-house waitress on his visit to San Francisco. He might still leave a piece of jewelry - although it wouldn't be a tie pin - as a tip, along with a charmingly effusive love note. But the levelheaded waitress would look him up on the web and find the site for his flourishing grape business. She'd see the homey photograph of the owner and his sister in their Napa Valley vineyard. And the burly, far-from-handsome older man would inspire no amorous reveries whatsoever. The waitress would send him a polite thank you and return the jewelry. Or hock it. No pen-pal courtship. No phony photo making her believe he's young and hot. No postal marriage proposal. And, saddest of all, no marvelous musical for the utterly satisfying finale of the 50th anniversary season of Goodspeed Musicals. Happily, there was no Internet in 1924, when Sidney Howard first told the story of the farmer, Tony Esposito, and his mail-order bride in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "They Knew What They Wanted," nor in 1956, when Frank Loesser turned it into the musical now in residence at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam. Loesser had provided the music and lyrics for two huge hits, "Where's Charley?" and "Guys and Dolls," but he took on more responsibility with "The Most Happy Fella," writing the book as well as the score. That left him free to add music as he saw fit, and he turned some of the prose passages - like Tony's first letter to the stranger he calls Rosabella, and the conversation in which he asks his good-looking young foreman, Joe, to give him a photo - into wonderfully emotive arias. It's often said that this is the most operatic of the classic American musicals, but Loesser never forgot that he was writing for a Broadway audience. There's a lament about tired feet, a quartet for street-corner lotharios "watching all the girls go by," a work song extolling grapes. There's even a comic ditty about Dallas, although the show takes place entirely in California. But it's true that the most important music in this superb work concerns the longings of the human heart. That's where the director, Rob Ruggiero, and his pitch-perfect cast come in. Mr. Ruggiero has shown himself to be particularly adept at musicals that pivot on emotion rather than comedy - last year's "Carousel" at the Goodspeed was a spectacular example. And with its purity of feeling and roots in that rarest of virtues, forgiveness, "The Most Happy Fella" is right up his alley. He has reassembled much of his "Carousel" team and elicited excellent and unfussy work that does not distract from the essence of the piece: The breezy, seamless choreography is by Parker Esse; the magnificent scenic design comes from Michael Schweikardt; and the wizardly lighting is the work of John Lasiter. Thomas Charles LeGalley's first-rate costumes evoke the period without calling attention to themselves. And, as usual, Michael O'Flaherty takes brilliant charge of the music. Mr. Ruggiero has updated the show's setting from the "20s to the "50s, and he's trimmed a few of the songs - the original ran to more than 40 numbers. But his most felicitous coup is the casting of the winsome Mamie Parris as Rosabella and the endearing Bill Nolte as Tony. Their singing is immaculate, their acting persuasive enough to let us forget they are singing. Tony and Rosabella feel like real people. So does Doug Carpenter's melancholy Joe, who reveals his wanderlust in the soulful "Joey, Joey, Joey." Rosabella's friend Cleo, played by Natalie Hill, and Tony's farmhand Herman, portrayed by Kevin Vortmann, are the opposite of real people - they're the musical-comedy couple in the piece, adding a bit of froth and some spiffy dance moves. As Tony's too-devoted sister, Marie, Ann Arvia conveys the show's darker, more melodramatic elements. And Martín Solá, Greg Roderick and Daniel Berryman blend their sweet voices in Loesser's gorgeous tribute to earthly pleasures, "Abbondanza." The production's polished singers stand out beautifully against the seven-piece orchestrations of Dan DeLange, somewhere between a full pit band and the two-piano version of the score that was presented by Goodspeed in 1991. That production went on to Broadway, and in a better world, this one would, too. But "The Most Happy Fella" - and this "Most Happy Fella" in particular - is musical theater by, for and about grown-ups; there's little room for that on Broadway these days. "The Most Happy Fella," by Frank Loesser, is at the Goodspeed Opera House, Route 82, East Haddam, through Dec. 1. Information: (860) 873-8668 or goodspeed.org.