I did, I did enjoy musical ‘I do! I do!’

The 1965 musical “I Do! I Do!” is not the stuff of today’s musicals.

Today, a show about marriage would be the stuff of sitcoms.

Yet, set to the music of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, this winning Spokane Civic Theatre production goes beyond comedy and even borders on the profound, in its own simple way.

A long-term relationship is like an epic journey, filled with joys, disappointments, heartbreak and deep satisfactions. It’s amazing how much of that journey is condensed into these two hours of theater.

These themes are conveyed surprisingly well, thanks to Thomas Heppler as Michael and Jan Neumann as Agnes, and the tone-perfect direction of Troy Nickerson.

There were moments at the beginning when I thought this might be a long night. Heppler seemed tense and jittery and both he and Neumann seemed too old to be playing young newlyweds.

But in a terrific sequence of four songs just a little later, all of these apprehensions disappeared. Heppler and Neumann combined on a hilarious duet of supposedly “constructive” criticisms of each other in a song called “Nobody’s Perfect.” The song’s tagline: “Nobody’s perfect. Especially not you.”

Then Heppler embarked on a blatantly sexist discourse on a woman’s place, which was greeted by good-natured boos from the crowd. Heppler, totally at ease now, handled this with aplomb.

Then Neumann donned a wild red hat and did a few bumps and grinds in her fantasy song, “Flaming Agnes.” Finally, to close the first act, the sparks flew during a doozy of an argument in “The Honeymoon Is Over.”

The audience was completely won over by the second act.

Heppler is no Robert Preston, who originated the role on Broadway. Heppler’s comic persona owes more to Stan Laurel, yet that works well in a number of scenes, including several where he gets into comic battles with his own clothing.

He delivers his songs well, in a Rex Harrison style. As his character aged, the depth of the performance deepened. The casting of Heppler was risky, but a risk that paid off.

Neumann was simply marvelous throughout, with the brassy aplomb of Lucille Ball and a strong voice that sounded particularly good on “My Cup Runneth Over.”

One of Nickerson’s staging ideas worked particularly well: He had twin pianos right on stage, played flawlessly by musical director Carol Miyamoto and Beverly Rhodes.

It was not only great to watch them perform, but it also brought Schmidt’s melodies right to the forefront, exactly where they belong.