Enchantment, love and lots of flowers have bloomed on the Lawrence Community Theatre stage with the opening of “The Secret Garden.” This Tony Award-winning musical based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s much-loved novel is written by Marsha Norman with music by Lucy Simon.

Falling in love with this story is not hard. Young Mary Lennox (Sally Spurgeon) is orphaned in India during a cholera epidemic in 1906. She comes to the dark, secretive, Yorkshire manor house of her bitter Uncle Archibald (John Phythyon), who has spent the past 10 years grieving wife Lily’s (Jayna French) death. Their son, Colin, lives isolated in his room, attended by obsequious servants and his uncle, Dr. Craven (Michael Hagen), who feeds Colin’s fears of dying from real and imagined ills. Mary helps lead the Cravens out of their darkness and isolation by discovering Lily’s secret garden and bringing it to life again.

In order to achieve the magic of this story, one must have a core of talented young people. Spurgeon’s Mary is a sassy bundle of emotional energy and spunk. As her garden conspirator Dickon, Jacob Leet brings just the right amount of roguish charm to his role. They are joined by the sweet-voiced Jayke Workman as the sickly Colin Craven.

Archibald Craven is easy to play merely as pathetic and sad, but Phythyon makes the most of scenes that reveal his abiding love for his neglected son and his growing warmth toward his niece. He and Hagen fully render the pain of loss they both feel in “Lily’s Eyes,” a scene that keeps Dr. Craven from seeming merely evil and Archibald from appearing beyond redemption.

Lily’s ghost dominates much of the play, reaching from beyond to save her son and husband from their melancholia. French uses her lovely voice well to cast enchantments over her living family, drawing them into the restorative garden. She and Phythyon play well together, both grieving the other’s loss and remembering the strength of their love in the especially touching “How Could I Ever Know.”

Mary is guided by her dead parents and their friends who return as The Dreamers, a Ghost Chorus propelling the plot and filling in the story in flashbacks. Executing Barbara Wasson’s mesmerizing choreography, these talented performers remind us of the thin veil between life and death that can be breached by the power of love.

Jack Riegle’s clever but simple set design is a series of moveable pieces indicating changes from the house to garden, and Ron Chinn’s light design conjures those same magical shifts as well as setting off Jane Pennington and Eleanor Patton’s nostalgic costume design. Although there were technical glitches on Saturday night, the varying set changes are effective. The final garden scene is breathtaking, set off as it is by Mary Ann Saunders’ stunningly painted backdrop.

Simon’s music is difficult, and one sometimes wishes for sturdier vocals, but ably led by music director Mary Baker, the cast still conveys the score’s magic. At the helm is Mary Doveton, whose sensitive direction guides this extraordinary story, compelling the audience to “come to the garden.”