For a young, pretty girl growing up in pre-women’s lib Arkansas, a sure way out of a small hick town was winning a beauty contest. But what if the girl happens to have a mind? A good, questing mind? Once she wins the contest, is she going to be content cutting ribbons and crooning Wayne Newton hits in piano bars? Maybe not.

The full story of Rhonda Coullet, the notorious Miss Arkansas who tossed her tiara in 1965 before lighting out for the territory — the territory being Hollywood, a starring roll in the rock and roll musical Hair, and many other singing and acting successes — is now burning up the stage at the Vineyard Playhouse.

Runaway Beauty Queen, directed by Randal Myler and starring Rhonda Coullet as herself — she also wrote the book, music and lyrics — kicks off the summer 2010 season. The first scene opens with chartreuse points of light roving against night skies. An atmosphere of magic pervades the entire play. As a symbol for woman’s journey, the goddess sisters, the Pleiades, serve as — no pun intended — the Greek chorus, brought to life by Janet Dickinson, Mary Murfitt, Elizabeth Palmer, KT Curran and Judith Jacklin, a.k.a. Judy Belushi Pisano. The players alternate as real life persons from Ms. Coullet’s amazing life. With a change of scarves, sashes or headdresses — costumes are by Chelsea McCarthy, assisted by Susannah Hallagan — these six ladies launch into scores of characters.

Ms. Coullet as the older Rhonda, in the play called Sis, lies on a hospital gurney. In a surrealistic moment brought on by sodium pentothal, she beholds a younger version of herself, played by the ravishing Whitney Bashor. They change places and now we’re swept back through the years.

Runaway Beauty is all music all the time in the tradition of Stephen Sondheim. The songs, 32 of them, are pure marvels, many upbeat and witty, others poignant and lyrical; this musical will yield a must-have CD. Some of the snappiest numbers include the young Sis blasting out her tomboy woes in Right in the Middle I Am, and the whole cast jiving to the joy of teen makeout sessions in Parkin’ in a Pickup. Ms. Murfitt provides comic flair as the beauty queen’s coach in Train A Lady, as she spouts 50s pointers and shibboleths that we’re all thrilled to have shed decades ago. At the University of Arkansas, Sis’s dorm pals, with pink scarves tenting over yellow hair rollers, pitch her to try out for Miss Arkansas: Do It for the Dorm, they sing, in the hopes of showing up the hoity-toity sorority chicks.

Melancholy and at the same time agreeably melodic ballads include Why Is the Moon So Blue, sung by a lovelorn Sis, and Via Dolorosa, delivered by the goddesses to itemize the misadventures that have taken our heroine from the hollers of Arkansas to the sloughs of Hollywood.

The talented actor Ben Hope carries the ball for all the male roles, from Sis’s drunk, shotgun totin’, roadkill eatin’ tough of a hillbilly daddy, to the beauty queen’s first and last great love and wheelman for her runway runaway, to the sad young husband of the swinging seventies who lags behind the swinging appetites of his wife.

Ms. Palmer provides a star turn as none other than Joan Crawford presiding over the ’65 Miss America pageant. Shiny brown bangs fringe her forehead with the definition of jumbo cannelloni, and she struts her movie star stuff with dark sunglasses and a fox fur stole. A few minutes into her Miss America medley, she flourishes a wire hanger in a hilarious nod to Mommie Dearest.

Ms. Coullet plays Sis’s grandmother, Mamaw, a wise mountain woman with a touch of holiness. She compensates for the rejecting and rough-hewn father and the woebegone mother who can think of nothing better to do than to stand by her man. Sis’s sass, determination and talent have a lot to do with her success in life, but it’s the love and support of her Mamaw that holds the disparate parts together. (Hey, maybe that old chestnut should be changed: “Behind every great man or woman is the love of a good woman.”)

Sis’s plunge into sixties psychedelia, with the attendant drugs, sex and rock and roll — heavy on the last two-thirds of the triumvirate — takes us on a magical mystery tour of the times. The central tragedy of Sis’s life is a baby boy delivered out of wedlock and given up for adoption. The classic longing for the lost child haunts her days and nights and, many years later, when the time is right and the Pleiades shine in the heavens, Sis goes looking for her boy (another juicy part for Mr. Hope).

The first act could use a 10 to 15-minute shave. It’s all gorgeous, so it’s difficult to say what could be trimmed, but it’s a fact that past the 45-minute mark, no matter how scrumptious the production, audience members start to fantasize about platters of brownies and carafes of high octane coffee.

Musical director Paul Jacobs accompanies on keyboard. Ms. Coullet hunkers down before a second keyboard when the unfolding drama allows her a few minutes off stage.

The ever magnifica MJ Bruder Munafo, producer and artistic director, workshopped the musical at the playhouse last summer, then brought it home for a full production this July. Ms. Belushi Pisano coproduces, and she deserves a lot of credit for luring her talented friend Ms. Coullet to the Vineyard for the full apotheosis of Runaway Beauty Queen.

Lighting design is by Fred J. Hancock; sound design by Jim Novack; set design, Thomas Cariello; properties, Kate Hancock; master electrician, Gregory Lynch; tech director, Scott Weddell; master carpenter, Christopher Kann; house managers are Robert C. Porter and Linda Smith; box office Geneva Monks; graphics and production, Stephen M. Zablotny; and interns are Susannah Hallagan, Tessa Hayward and Ned Moore.

Runaway Beauty Queen will play through July 17. For box office information, call 508-696-6300.