In good times and in bad ...

Rather than a single song, marriage is a paradox of well-worn melodies that somehow add up to a life, declares the new David Shire-Richard Maltby musical, “A Time for Love.”

Form follows function as this deceptively simple two-performer song cycle charts the remarkably coherent and satisfying arc of a contemporary relationship through a diverse compilation of individual numbers -- some original, others repurposed from the longtime collaborators’ previous shows.

In a promising debut staging for Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre, co-creators Maltby and director Joel Silberman stake out more integrated and disciplined turf than a revue while stopping short of a fully structured book musical. This in-between format plays well to the strengths of lyricist Maltby and composer Shire: In a few carefully crafted verses, their self-contained songs elegantly crystallize the introspective discoveries and recognitions that would require pages of narrative dialogue.

In contrast with a traditional revue, familiarity with the original sources is fairly unimportant here -- the recycled songs fit seamlessly in their new context, with little adaptation needed other than an occasional gender switch or emphasis-shifting truncated lyric.

First-rate vocalists Lois Robbins and Brian Sutherland effectively maintain the continuity of their unnamed characters through the relationship phases that structure the piece.

Passionate infatuation dominates the first section (drawn mostly from “Starting Here, Starting Now”). The breathless, tongue-tied wonder of initial attraction culminates in a new composition, “Something in a Wedding,” with its idealistic longing for “something more than merely true” amid “all the things that pass for love these days.”

Robbins’ sultry vibrato impresses in these opening numbers, and in the double-octave “The Story Goes On” (from “Baby”), the pregnant wife’s contemplation of her place in the generational chain of life.

As idealism gives way to disillusionment, Sutherland’s nuanced performance comes into its own with the husband’s “I’ll Get Up Tomorrow Morning” (new), about the soul-deadening onslaught of adult responsibilities, and “One of the Good Guys” (from “Closer Than Ever”), a rueful meditation on roads not taken.

Two anchor duets at near-opposite ends of the cycle trace the couple’s predilection for comfort and conformity that initially cements the marriage in “Not What I Expected” (new) but later undermines it in “And What If We Had Loved Like That” (from “Baby”). In between, passion dissipates in “No Time for Love” (new) and emotional distance grows in “There” (from “Closer Than Ever”). The bitingly funny new “Dating Again” chronicles the follies of starting over late in life.

Video vignettes featuring the reminiscences of mature couples divide the main phases -- not strictly necessary, as the song cycle stands on its own, but they add color and some well-timed humor.

However, the last segment prematurely telegraphs the ending and would be better placed nearer the abrupt resolution in the “Closer Than Ever” finale. A transitional number leading up to the change of mind would also be a helpful addition.

Both creators and performers are confident enough in their show’s intelligence that they’re willing to engage feelings without ironic detachment -- life supplies all the complexity and ambivalence needed. Lifelong romance may be an illusion, but this one makes a good case that it’s still the grandest one we’ve got.

*

‘A Time for Love’

Where: Rubicon Theatre, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays

Ends: Feb. 25

Price: $35 to $49

Contact: (805) 667-2900 or www.rubicontheatre.org

Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes