The Best is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman, the new musical revue inspired by the famed composer of such Broadway hits as Sweet Charity, Barnum, City of Angels and many others, raises inevitable questions. What to leave in? What to leave out? Do you concentrate on the well-known hits or excavate the little-known gems? And if you’re going to stick to a running time of under 90 minutes, a lot of great songs are not going to make the cut.

Fortunately, the show, devised and directed by David Zippel (Coleman’s collaborator on City of Angels) is entertaining enough to compensate for any quibbles. Personally, I would have liked far more from some of my favorites, like On the Twentieth Century and I Love My Wife, and less from the unfinished musical about Napoleon.

But there’s no arguing about the top-notch ensemble of musical performers that have been assembled, including Howard McGillin, Lillias White, Rachel York, Sally Mayes, David Burnham and the formidable Billy Stritch on piano. They’re accompanied by a first-rate eight-piece band, featuring plenty of horns to accentuate the composer’s brassy signature sound.

Each singer is given material that plays to his or her strengths. The comically adept Mayes mines all of the self-deprecating humor of “Nobody Does It Like Me.” The handsome McGillin brings a sly wit to “You Fascinate Me So,” which he turns into a smarmy seduction song by singing it to all of his female co-stars in succession. The big-voiced White belts “Don’t Ask a Lady” with powerful authority. Stritch infuses “It Amazes Me” with a genial, everyman quality. Burnham brings a warm sincerity to “Witchcraft.” And when the gorgeous, sultry York sings “Hey, Look Me Over,” well, was there ever any question?   

The clear highlight, however, is White’s rendition of “The Oldest Profession” from The Life, for which she won her well-deserved Tony Award. Her hilariously world-weary delivery of the bawdy number reveals no staleness despite the endless number of times she’s sung it.

Frustratingly, some of the best songs are shoehorned into medleys but, as they say, it’s better to leave the audience wanting more. And while the intimacy of the theater at 59E59 is nice, there are times when the big voices and loud arrangements overwhelm the room. But that shouldn’t be a problem for long, as this show well deserves a transfer to a larger theater for an extended run.

59E59 Theaters, 59 E. 59th St. 212-279-4200. www.59e59.org.