NILES — There is a lot to admire about Trumbull New Theatre’s production of “Emma,” which opened Friday at Trumbull New Theatre, starting with the look of the production.

Brett Bunker’s two-story set design makes magnificent use of the space, and the way the first level opens up allowed for quick scene changes and created a different look and feel as the play’s setting shifts.

The costuming by Melissa Birmingham and Emily Goldner also helped establish the early 18th century look of the tale about matrimony and manners by Jane Austen. Shawn Lockaton’s lighting design effectively differentiated the moments when Emma breaks the fourth wall and directly addresses the audience.

Michael Bloom’s adaptation of Austen’s novel maintains the period setting, but the language doesn’t feel stilted or unfamiliar to contemporary ears. There’s a timeless quality to Austen’s writing, as the many adaptations of her work in recent decades prove. It was a clever wink to that timelessness that the preshow and intermission music features traditional sounding, string-quartet arrangements of songs by Taylor Swift and The Killers.

The production also is filled with juicy supporting roles for TNT veterans.

Casey Murphy gets the biggest laughs of the night as Harriet Smith, for whom Emma is determined to find a husband. She enlivens the show whenever she is on stage. Jenny Long barely has any dialogue, but she never fails to get a laugh with her flask and her reactions to the goings on around her.

Jerry Kruse was wonderfully cantankerous as Emma’s father, a man deeply worried about the chill in the air outside his cozy home. The man had a bigger fear of drafts than an 18-year-old male in 1969.

Amy Jo Giovannone has great fun strutting around the stage as Philip Elton, who is more interested in the matchmaker than her proposed match, and Amy Burd is entertaining as the talkative Miss Bates.

Several people making their TNT debuts — including Jerome Teasley as Mr. Weston, James Desharnais as Frank Churchill and Jennifer Taylor as Augusta Hawkins — are welcome additions to the community theater’s talent pool.

As one might suspect from the title, Emma Woodhouse is the dominant character in the play and has the most dialogue. Sydney Stalnecker had a likable, engaging presence as the amateur matchmaker who claims she never will marry.

But she’s playing a character whose weakness is her over confidence, at least when it comes to pairing up couples, and Stalnecker lacked confidence when it came to her grasp of the script. She never forgot her lines, but there were frequent pauses where it felt like she was struggling to remember them.

I suspect that will improve as the show’s three-weekend run continues, but it threw off the rhythm of the play on opening night and affected Emma having any chemistry with George Knightley, played by Marc Bye. Their banter in the first act should at least hint at some romantic tension between the two. It didn’t.

Allison Bye picked a show filled with challenges for her directing debut. The production handles many of them skillfully, but the pacing lagged noticeably in the second act.

If you go …

WHAT: “Emma”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday through Jan. 25

WHERE: Trumbull New Theatre, 5883 Youngstown Warren Road, Niles

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $17 for adults and $15 for students and are available online at trumbullnewtheatre.tix.com and by calling the TNT 330-652-1103 between 7 and 9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday.