Even at 50, the lady remains fairest of them all. And Diablo Light Opera Company pays "My Fair Lady" a loving tribute in honor of her 50th anniversary, proving not only that Lerner and Loewe turned George Bernard Shaw's story into an entertaining and clever musical, but that there is still plenty of new life left in the old girl.

The production, which opened Friday, has an elegance befitting its 1912 London setting, coupled with a liveliness that makes it almost irresistible. And it was accomplished by sticking to the basics.

There's good, solid acting with intelligent characterization. There's also fresh and innovative choreography, and musical direction (by Cheryl Yee Glass), both instrumental and vocal, that makes the score an integral part of telling the story -- and that's no small feat when almost every tune in the show has become a standard in its own right.

Of course it doesn't hurt to have rock solid material to start with. Shaw's "Pygmalion," on which the show is based, is a clever play that still unfolds like a contemporary account of the battle between the sexes. His lines -- and Lerner and Loewe took full advantage of Shaw's cleverness in both the book and lyrics -- remain wickedly funny and remarkably wise.

Then, when all of that goes into telling a story with more hooks than you'd find in a tackle box, it's hard to go wrong. Linguistics professor Henry Higgins (John Hetzler) silently observes Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Angelique Lucia) butchering the English language as she attempts to sell flowers to the after-theater crowd in London's Covent Garden.

By coincidence, Higgins also runs into another linguist, Col. Hugh Pickering (Lee Strawn), who had come to London to jaw a bit with the professor. One thing leads to another and Higgins bets Pickering that he can use his powers of speech instruction to pass the flower girl off as someone near royalty.

With that, Eliza finds herself living in the Higgins home, spending day and night learning to speak like a proper lady. Higgins is a petty dictator who demands perfection from Eliza, yet refuses to give her any praise or recognition at all.

Eliza is thoroughly frustrated, but she does learn the King's English, and in doing so impresses London's raised-pinky set, particularly Freddy (Brandon Mears), who falls instantly in love with her. Naturally, the course of love doesn't run smoothly as the characters brawl and battle their tuneful way toward the royal ball that will be Eliza's final test.

Eliza finds herself living a life between two worlds -- that of the flower sellers and her father, Alfred (Mitchell Field), and that of the upper crust -- and is unsure where she belongs.

For the audience, both worlds and the rest of the 1912 fantasy created by the show are utterly charming. The set, inspired by Rex Harrison's final tour in 1964, is breathtaking and filled with the sort of detail that earmarks scenery from that era.

In front of it, though, the action is purely contemporary. Choreographer Kate Leland has created some wonderfully evocative steps that go a long way toward developing the proper mood. The principal actors sing beautifully, particularly Lucia, who comes from an opera background. Hetzler and Strawn are properly stuffy as the fussy old linguists, and Mears gives Freddy a hilarious twist, playing him as something of a wealthy, but useless, twit. Field, who has a remarkable stage presence, turns Alfred into the sort of charming rogue who could sell anyone the Tower Bridge.

Major credit must also go to director Dianna Shuster, who not only filled the play with clever little touches but was able to give familiar material a truly fresh feel.