By Melinda Miller

It takes a special kind of alchemy to turn a divisive cultural issue into a gleefully funny entertainment and, apparently, they have a bottle of the stuff at MusicalFare, because its season opener, “The Prom,” is pure gold — or fool’s gold, at least!

Pointedly satiric, “The Prom” provides an equal-opportunity lampooning of liberal and conservative stereotypes as they tussle over whether a Midwestern high school girl can take another girl to the big dance. 

Honestly, I did not expect to be so taken by this show. I hadn’t heard much about it, and the plot descriptions I saw sounded a little too earnest, even preachy: A group of actors travels to Indiana to help a lesbian teen go to the prom? Then, rather than cave to pressure, the school cancels the dance altogether? Whose idea of a good time is that?

Oh, ye of little faith in musical comedy!

The zingers take flight in the very first scene, set backstage after the opening night of a show about FDR and his wife. As soon its star Dee Dee Allen describes Eleanor Roosevelt as “a powerful, brave, charismatic woman that no one had ever heard of,” I was hooked. 

Then the reviews come in, and Dee Dee and her costar Barry Glickman find out that, once again, they are in a flop. Delivering a hard truth, Sheldon their publicist tells them, “It’s not the show. It’s you two. You’re not likeable.”

They are, however, the kind of characters that MusicalFare’s actors can sink their teeth into.

Jenn Stafford is absolutely luminous as the aging Broadway diva Dee Dee, a narcissist incapable of seeing anything beyond the glow of her own fading light. She can’t move without striking a pose. Every word is punctuated with carefully carefree toss of her hair, every glance says “look over here, look at me!”

When she’s told that narcissists are people who are in love with themselves, she retorts, “I still don’t see what’s wrong with that!”

Louis Calaiacovo is slightly more pragmatic as Barry, though he matches Dee Dee with Barry’s self-centered cluelessness. It isn’t everyone who can get away with rhyming “lesbian” and “thespian” in song.

Now desperate, a plot is quickly concocted to humanize their images: They’ll take up a cause to make them look more giving, caring and generous —  a cause that can be resolved quickly, and that’s easy to drive to. They don’t want to waste too much time on this.

The ensuing road trip to Indiana includes Angie Dickinson (Nicole Cimato), a dancer understudy whose waiting for her chance to play Roxie in “Chicago.” (That might sound familiar: Cimato was a wicked Roxie last summer in an O’Connell & Co. production.) 

Also joining them is Trent Oliver (Mark Sacco), who has been working as a bartender since his TV show was cancelled, and Sheldon (Dave Spychalski), to keep an eye on things. 

Meanwhile, in the Indiana high school, Emma Nolan (a splendid Sam Crystal) isn’t trying to be a cause, she simply wants to breathe, be like her classmates and go to the prom with the person she’s (secretly) dating. Such a concept strikes fear into the local PTA, led by Mrs. Greene (Davida Tolbert), which panics at the idea of a “homosexual prom.”

Emma is in a tough spot. But at least she has the principal Mr. Hawkins (Jake Hayes) on her side. In fact, Hawkins is on the verge of resolving the issue when the New York City cohort bursts into the school meeting, proclaiming “We’re liberal Democrats from Broadway!!!” and turning the whole town topsy turvy.

With eight main characters and as many more in the ensemble, plus the off-stage band, “The Prom” is full-blown extravaganza that practically bursts out of the venue. Choreographer Michael Oliver-Walline and director Doug Weyand get top-notch performances from all concerned, seeming to encourage even the minor characters to explore their own inner divas. 

Fair warning: The narrative is full of gay jokes, cow jokes, hick jokes, stage jokes, bleeding-heart liberal jokes and mean girls/boys. There even is, almost beside the point, a prom. There also are moments of realization, reconciliation, invoking the Golden Rule and outsized generosity.  

As we said earlier: It’s musical comedy. Indulge at your own risk, because it could be habit-forming. 

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MusicalFare Theatre presents “The Prom” by Chad Beguelin, Bob Martin and Matthew Sklar; Wednesdays and Thursdays, 7 p.m.; Fridays, 7:30; Saturdays, 3:30 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sundays, 2 p.m.; now through Oct. 6. The theater is at 4380 Main St., Amherst on the Daemen University campus. There is free parking adjacent to the theater. Tickets are $57; $20 for students, at musicalfare.com