“Purlie Victorious” was a minor success on Broadway but proved to be a durable property. The 1961 play – in which a group of poor, black sharecroppers led by a slick-talking preacher in a tailcoat, triumph over their white oppressor – was first made into a low budget movie and then in, 1970, a musical by Gary Geld and Peter Udell. “Purlie!” version won a Tony and ran for nearly two years. This weekend it was performed as the second offering of City Center’s 2005 Encores! Season.

The two original productions gave a major boost to the members of their casts, including playwright Ossie Davis, who played the lead in the original, and Cleavon Little, who by all accounts was sensational as Purlie in the musical. The two leading ladies were Ruby Davis (in the play) and Melba Moore (in the musical), and the comedic leads were Godfrey Cambridge and Sherman Helmsley. One white actor, the 25-year-old Alan Alda, made his movie debut in the film version.

The Encores! production had a dependable though not spectacular leading man in Blair Underwood. Broadway’s greatest soul singer, Lillias White, was Aunt Missy, and Anika Noni Rose delivered a star turn as Lutiebell. Another scene-stealer was John Cullum, apparently typed as a villain after “Urinetown” who plays the white supremacist boss as a charming rascal.

Set in a time before Martin Luther King’s assertive nonviolence and Malcolm X’s “by any means necessary” changed national politics, the play daringly suggested that “civil wrongs” should be made “civil rights.” The Reverend Purlie Victorious Judson and his friends out-connived the tyrannical (but lovable) Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee.

By 1970, however, the conflict was no longer about racial equality but something more like a situation comedy. Indeed, the musical begins with the ending – the funeral of the oppressor – so we know the good guys have already won. The whole show is a flashback, presented with a certain smugness. It’s telling that the Old Cap’n’s aria in support of the status quo (“Big Fish, Little Fish”) is a much better song than his son’s a-change-is-gonna-come song (the awkward “The World is Comin’ to a Start”).

The main reason for reviving “Purlie!” today is the music. Lyricist Udell and composer Geld, whose only notable other show was “Shenandoah,” came up with an exciting score that does for black pop – R&B, soul, gospel – what 1968’s “Hair” did for white rock: It convincingly incorporated the form into the context of Broadway show music.

“Purlie!” opens and closes with a rousing Gospel number, “Walk Him Up the Stairs.” It includes a very funny comedy number (“Skinnin’ a Cat”), a Jerry Herman-style title song and a send-up of somber college choirs (“Great White Father”) similar to those of Frank Loesser. “Down Home” is a blues-based monologue in the style of “Dock of the Bay” and “Rainy Night in Georgia” except that it’s done as a duet. “First Thing Monday” is a thrilling Motown-style opener for the second act.

The 1970 “Purlie” ended with Cleavon Little, having saved the day, moving on – anticipating the end of “Blazing Saddles.” Today, the plot of “Purlie!” seems like an antique, yet the music (beautifully orchestrated by the late Luther Henderson) makes “Purlie!” something more enduring.