I was marching to the beat of “Gypsy” long before I realized it.

Ben Evans, music director of the Southern Lehigh High School Marching Band, chose “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” as the Solehi “Spartan” band’s fanfare.

We proudly rounded a corner in the Kutztown Halloween Parade or trundled briskly down Broad Street in the televised Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade, blasting out the iconic exuberance and optimism of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”

I played the snare drum in my junior year (I can still tap out the cadence) in 1967 and the cymbals during my sophomore year in 1966 in the Solehi band, providing the hemidemisemiquaver, as my late great dad used to call it, heralding the drum major strutting out front of the blue and white as the majorettes twirled batons while I and the percussion section brought up the rear.

“Everything’s Coming Up Roses” is but one of the signature songs that have become part of the Great American Songbook. You can bask in their glory in the fantastic production of “Gypsy,” through July 5, The Bill Mutimer Summer Theatre Series at Northampton Community College.

The July 2 performance was seen for this theater review.

“Gypsy,” billed as “a musical fable ... suggested by the [1957] memoir of Gypsy Rose Lee,” brims with the musical genius of Jule Styne, the lyrical genius of Stephen Sondheim and the thoughtful book by Arthur Laurents. The NCC cast brims with energy, talent and pizazz in bringing “Gypsy” to the stage.

The musical, which chronicles the American theater transition from vaudeville to burlesque, certainly provides a hot time in the old town. The show’s role of Louise is based on Gypsy Rose Lee, and the role of June is based on her sister, actress June Havoc. The musical is regarded as one of, if not the, greatest American musical.

The NCC production is directed with enthusiasm by Jessica Lopez-Barkl, who in her curtain talk reminded the audience that the air-conditioned Lipkin Theatre provides a welcome respite from the 100-degree-plus Fahrenheit July 4 holiday week and weekend heat wave. And, “Extra, extra,” as the show headlines it, “Gypsy” includes its own patriotic fervor in several numbers, including the “Stars and Stripes,” perfect for America’s 250th anniversary.

The NCC production opens with its own fanfare in the overture performed by an outstanding 11-piece orchestra conducted by Music Director Nick Conti.

The show quickly gets down to business, show business, that is, with “Rose’s Entrance: Let Me Entertain You,” with a spectacular child performer, in loud voice and splendid dance form, Sarah Pannettiere (Baby June), and McKenna Lobb (Baby Louise).

Julia Urich (Rose) takes it from there and doesn’t let up in the vocal department from the brassy solo, “Some People”; to the reflective “Small World” and the declarative “You’ll Never Get Away From Me” (in wonderful duets with the redoubtable Jason Roth as Herbie), and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” which in the context of the musical, takes on a bittersweet dimension, that of a fanfare of defiance, showing that Rose marches to the beat of a different drummer, namely, her own beating heart.

Urich encapsulates the spirit of Rose, no more so than in the pun-filled “Mr. Goldstone” (a hint of Sondheim’s brilliant world of word play), sung with Roth and the youths in the cast to Brett Oliveira (Mr. Goldstone).

Eileen Lee (Louise) is in lovely voice for “Little Lamb” and in a spectacular duet with big-voiced Jenna Seasholtz (June) for “If Momma Was Married.”

Kaleb Bell (Tulsa) is a fantastic triple-threat as actor, dancer and singer in “All I Need Is The Girl.”

Urich, Roth and Lee combine fabulously for “Together Wherever We Go.”

“You Gotta Get A Gimmick” with Riley Lusk (Mazeppa), Ava Boyd (Electra) and Tessie (Christine Scharf Breiner) puts the X in Burlesque.

Oh, and by the way, in the NCC production, Rose makes her entrance carrying a pet Pomeranian-Husky named Duke (Chowsy)

The show’s credits include: Tina Williams, choreographer; Todd Burkel, costumer, and Bren Lamb, costume coordinator.

“Gypsy” brings the joys and challenges of a bygone theater era to the stage in a provocative and entertaining show. Indeed, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” in the NCC production.

“Gypsy,” 7:30 p.m. June 24, 25, 26, 27, July 1, 2, 3; 2 p.m. June 28, July 5; 5 p.m. July 4, Bill Mutimer Summer Theatre Series, Lipkin Theater, Kopecek Hall, Northampton Community College, 3835 Green Pond Road, Bethlehem Township. 484-484-3412, https://www.ncctix.org/