"Take Flight" (2007), presented by the McCarter Theatre Center, at the Berlind Theater, in Princeton, New Jersey, is rara avis-truly a rare bird. It is something no theatre lover has seen in a very long time-a fairly new American musical. Producers these days prefer to take new views of classic canons, as in "Come Fly Away," but John Weidman transcends the pedestrian in a book that takes a sepia-toned, but hard, look at the struggles of early aviation. Weaving the origins of human flight in the modern age with two of its early heroes, the show starts with the arrival of the Wright Brothers in Carolina, long before the throngs of Spring Break. Composer David Shire and lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr. combine their genius with Weidman's to provide opera-style recitative, advancing the story and plot to quickly set the scene. Each of the three story lines is expertly limned. We have set pieces and actors flying in from sides and tops of the spare stage and the colorful characters stand out against the sands of Kitty Hawk that might as well be the sands of time.

Stanford Nash and Benjamin Schrader, as Wilbur and Orville Wright respectively, start our journey at the beach. A good reminder of the times is that these men are at the beach in starched collars and three piece suits, swatting flies. But they weren't there for pest control, they were there to fly.

We meet then a young Charles Lindbergh, delightfully played by Claybourne Elder, with the brash freshness that a young man brimming with ideas would show. All pointed energy and lack of social skills, our Lindbergh soon realizes that the path to doing what feeds his soul is trod through the daily grind of what he must do to get to the summit. A chance meeting with Ray Page, the winsome and talented Bobby Daye, puts Lindbergh on the path to his destiny and what lies beyond.

Amelia Earhart is cooling her heels in an outer office, awaiting the meeting with Fate that was her first locking of horns, and hearts, with George Putnam. Playing Amelia is the versatile Jenn Colella, a singing comic actor with a sense of timing and moment. This is a pivotal role for her and if you doubt it, you must simply see the show. Colella's knowing and nuanced performance brings us close to the woman we know from photos, but whose life, for the most part, is obscured in history. And most of the women, and many of the men, left with a determination to know more. George Putnam is played by Michael Cumpsty, whose emotions, while on the turbulent path that George trod with Amelia, are both those of a man of his time, a captain of industry, as well as a man well aware that his heart is with the most unconventional of women. His duets with Amelia, and the solo grace notes that are part of a later ensemble are so moving.

The ensemble cast also includes the moveable feast of actors including the archly familiar William Youmans, Price Waldman, Todd A. Horman, Marya Grandy, Linda Gabler and Carey Rebecca Brown.

This village of players was literally Everyman, Everywoman and more. This village becomes airline mechanics, Rosie the Riveter, a bevy of close harmony beauties, a hulk of hucksters, a brace of bankers, and more, as history flows fluidly in a river of time, doubling back and tesseracting on itself, to bring Wilbur and Orville, at first not succeeding; to Charlie, in his lonely, sleepy, transatlantic space; to Amelia, navigating the quixotic quicksands of public favor.

America was hungry for heroes and this clearly took its toll. Think of how history elides-some think only of Amelia Earhart's heroic flights, in the pilot seat, after her first "victory" as a passenger, in crossing the ocean in an heiress plane. Fame is fleeting and others often profit from the heroes' work. After all, naming luggage after Amelia Earhart is like naming a baby monitor after Lindbergh. The human costs, though, include Lindbergh being truly lucky-he could have fallen asleep and died an icy, liquid death. He could have miscalculated the weight and materiel tolerances. We can only conjecture how Amelia met her end, but the music makes it clear that Lindbergh, Earhart and the Wright brothers were in touch with their passions, and that makes the difference between half lives half lived and fully living out loud.

Weidman brings alive the struggles to succeed that each of these heroes had in making each particular dream come true. We see our bitterly disappointed brother retreating back to Ohio, then realizing that the only weak link in the chain was the one that they did not generate. We see Lindbergh's disappointment at having to stretch to be something he's not-funny and dashing-and then discovering that he's both. Amelia wants everything and nothing that conventional women of her time want. And the maverick part of her is what attracts George Putnam so powerfully. But this story is not all dramatic magic, but the music is magic itself.

Maltby and Shire have ways to express emotions and sweeping themes, which, when partnered with Weidman's book, make for charming spots everywhere. Vocal harmonies in duos, trios and quartets, along with onomatopoetic pieces, delight the ear. Vignettes of our hucksters, or Andrews-Sister-esque tongue in cheek groupies, and also the soaring paeans to flight itself remind us that, whether we soar in the sky, or soar on the ground, the only limit is our passionate imagination.

See this show for the raw talent of the cast. See this show because you need a barking belly laugh and may want to sing along with something other than television. See this show because it shows the human side of history. Humans are social animals and this shared experience is history in itself.

"Take Flight" runs through June 6, and there are still good seats left. On Tuesday through Thursday and on Sunday, shows are at 7:30 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Matinees are on Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets, contact the box office at www.McCarter.org or, via telephone, at 609/258.ARTS (2787).