Playwright David Ives has clearly had a ball adapting Moliere for his screwball verse comedy The School for Lies, and his enjoyment is infectious. Retaining the basic characters, situations and 17th century setting of The Misanthrope, this comedy being presented by the Classic Stage Company is a textbook example of how to pay homage to the classics while applying a freewheeling, modern sensibility.

In this rendition, Alceste, the titular character of the original, has been cleverly renamed Frank (Hamish Linklater), but otherwise his essential surly temperament and rude propensity for unvarnished truth telling remain the same. Ives has upped the amorous quotient of Moliere’s play, concentrating on the troubled attraction that develops between Frank and Celimene (Mamie Gummer) after each has been misled by their mutual friend Philante (Hoon Lee).

Celimene, facing a vicious lawsuit by the nasty dowager Arsinoe (Alison Fraser), mistakenly believes that Frank will help defend her, while he thinks that the sharp-witted gossiper has fallen madly in love with him.

Competing with Frank for Celimene’s affections are a trio of dimwitted suitors (Rick Holmes, Matthew Maher, Frank Harts), while he is himself pursued by Celimene’s coquettish cousin Eliante (Jenn Gambatese), for whom Philante desperately pines.

The resulting dizzying complications, rendered in rhyming couplets ala Richard Wilbur’s classic translations, are consistently hilarious. Clearly armed with a copious rhyming dictionary, Ives has provided deliciously witty and frequently vulgar dialogue that includes numerous anachronistic touches that are jarringly funny.

“Till then we’ll lick love’s slippery mango,” Frank promises during his passionate wooing. “While locked in our own private, zipless tango!”

Under the expertly fast-paced direction of Walter Bobbie, the ensemble shines. Linklater superbly conveys Frank’s quick-wittedness, making him somehow endearing despite his nastiness; Gummer is enchanting and also hysterically funny in such moments as when Celimene delivers impressions of a Valley Girl and a Jersey goombah; Gambatese and Fraser tear into their broader roles with gusto; and Steven Boyer nearly steals the show with his slow-burn reactions as a servant whose efforts to dispense a tray of canapés are consistently derailed.

Adding to the buoyant fun are the pastel-colored period costumes by William Ivey Long, which somehow manage to be at once gorgeously sumptuous and wildly over-the-top.

Classic Stage Company, 136 E. 13th St. 212-352-3101. www.classicstage.org.