She has almost all the things she seeks — including grace and healing — inside her. It's just that she hasn't had the right mirror to reflect her innate beauty.

Violet, the title character of Jeanine Tesori's musical about a scarred young woman who thinks that she's too ugly to be loved, is getting a splendid embodiment by Annika Isbell for Ten Thousand Things Theater.

Director Kelli Foster Warder has chosen not to use makeup to show the character's disfigurement, sustained when she was a child and now the impetus for a bus trip from her South Carolina hometown to Tulsa, Okla., where she hopes to be healed by a television preacher (Tom Reed).

On the bus ride for "A Healing Touch," Violet meets a swath of Americans, including potential love interests Flick (Mitchell Douglas), a Black soldier and Flick's fellow soldier Monty (Ryan London Levin), who is white. The action also flashes back to Young Vi's childhood with her overwhelmed and ill-equipped single father (Charlie Clark).

In Foster Warder's production, Violet is the only one who can see her scar and who believes so deeply in her unsightliness that she wants to reconstruct her face with features from her screen heroines, including Ava Gardner's eyebrows, Grace Kelly's nose, Judy Garland's chin and Ingrid Bergman's cheekbones.

In Isbell, we see an unadorned but striking young woman with presence and rangy acting chops. She, and Sophina Saggau as Young Vi, take us into Violet's hurts and scant hopes.

But it is when Isbell starts to sing that she takes her character to another level. Isbell, Douglas and Saggau are deeply affecting on "Bring Me to Light," an emotive plea for wholeness that functions across personal and religious faith. It's the capstone number of "Violet" and one that causes chills.

The production is a gorgeous one, done, of course, in Ten Thousand Things' signature format with Sarah Bahr's gestural set pieces and props, Samantha Fromm Haddow's 1960s-era costumes and topnotch theatrical talent.

At Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, where the show plays through this weekend, the action unfolds with the lights up in a sanctuary surrounded by stately, pious paintings. Reed is smooth and stellar as the preacher, effortlessly surfing the waves of gospel on "Raise Me Up."

Lynnea Doublette also shines as Gospel Lady on the same number, helping "Raise Me Up" to redound with a pure joy.

Clark, for his part, helps us to understand the father a little better, and to see his kneeling near the end as a play for forgiveness and grace. Levin also goes to bat for Monty, a cocksure paratrooper whose actions suggest that he's a jerk. The cast is rounded out by Kate Beahen, who gives a sensitive portrayal as the Old Lady, among other roles.

Music director Sanford Moore is the one-man band accompanying the action on live keyboard with some additional programming. Moore deftly delivers the show's variety of musical styles, from Americana and country to gospel, blues and R&B.

The feel is not only one of traversing America, in all its variations and sensibilities, but also its hunger and dreaming.

Foster Warder's smart choices include the casting of Douglas, who has matinee idol looks, as Flick, not simply because his soul-pouring delivery of "Let It Sing" is a passionate showstopper.

Both Violet and Flick are supposed to believe they are ugly. And yet here they are, sweetly making moving vows to each other in "Promise Me, Violet," their voices swelling with passion, life and, yes, heartwarming beauty.

It's enough to make "Violet" a winner.

'Violet'

When: 7:30 p.m. Thu. & Fri., 2 & 7:30 p.m. Sat.

Where: Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, 511 Groveland Av., Mpls.

Tickets: $40 or pay-as-you-can. 612-203-9502 or tenthousandthings.org.