The intrigue:

“The Rink,” which opens at TheatreZone this week, is a familiar story about the struggle to move from validating our own hurt to healing it, seen in a reconciliation bedeviled by Anna’s anger at her daughter’s abandonment and Angel’s equal ire at her mother’s treatment.

To stir the pot is a situation familiar to Collier County: Anna is about to sell a local landmark, the roller rink she owns, to developers planning something huge and soulless. And many of Angel’s childhood joys are tied up in that rink.

The influencers:

The musical is by Broadway alchemists John Kander and Fred Ebb (“Cabaret,” “Chicago”), who wrote the music and lyrics. It has an equally impressive scriptwriter in Terrence McNally (“Ragtime” “Master Class”), known as a playwright who avoided cardboard characters in his librettos.

The piece de resistance:

Six demolition workers in the play find a box of skates in the arena Anna owns and do their own comic chorus line, gliding hilariously around the stage to the title song.

TheatreZone’s second offering of its 20th season lives up to its promise to unearth hidden gems, and this one requires an industrial- strength cast: Their role models from the 1984 Broadway play are Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli. The two actresses playing the combative mother and daughter, Anna and Angel, are onstage for nearly the entire play.

“I have one three-minute break in the first scene and one in the second,” said Karen Molnar, who plays Anna, her first in-depth character in seven years. It’s one Mark Danni, her husband, convinced her to do. The standoff between Anna and Angel is an emotionally hard role.

“I’m so mean to her. I can’t even imagine why she comes back,” she declared. “It’s been very hard finding a balance of not coming across too ghastly because the script is written very harshly.”

Sarah Ganey, who plays Angel, agrees that her character minces few words, as well: “They’re probably really likable characters,” she explained. “Just not in this moment.”

Anna has agreed to demolish and sell the rink, and her daughter’s sudden return after seven years’ estrangement has shot nails into her balloon. Their disagreement over the decision plays against the backdrop of the neighborhood and history of which Anna’s Italian family is a part.

Characters such as Anna’s husband, who left her; the local priest, Father Rocco; Lenny, the carnival ride owner who loves the oblivious Anna; a suspect uncle aptly named Fausto; local dowagers and more — all have their own perspectives on every stick of the rink and its neighboring boardwalk.

They’re played by a troupe of six male actors known as The Wreckers, because unified they are the demolition team. They jump out of character to play the other parts — including the female roles. They are actually the only ones who roller-skate.

“I literally have not put on roller skates since 1992,” conceded Adolpho Blaire, “so I’m holding on.” He added, with a touch of pride, “I’ve learned to stop.”

Mason Hensley, a fellow wrecker, was luckier. He had actually been roller skating last autumn with friends at a Brooklyn rink, Xanadu, and performed on skates for a production of “The Drowsy Chaperone.” As soon as he was issued his wheels for this play, he began doing some practice turns.

Because of the size of the stage, proficiency is critical; the group has been rehearsing in rooms marked with tape and with a firm order not to skate an inch beyond them. They remember director Danni commenting after one lapse, “You know you just skated into the audience.”

Neither Blair nor Hensley were closely familiar with its melodies: “I’d heard one of the duets before, ‘The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far,’” Hensley offered. But the music in this case is more organic, setting its lyrics to the plot rather than aiming for a Top 40 cover. It has a good friend in the music director, Keith Thompson, who has worked on Broadway and toured with productions such as “The Jersey Boys” for decades.

“It’s quintessential Broadway,” Blaire said. “On one hand, it feels very much like a Broadway musical — it’s got two diva leading ladies. It’s got that quintessential Broadway score by Kander and Ebb. It has things like roller skating. It’s got laughs, sentiment and just everything.

“But at the same time, it’s a play that Terrence McNally has written, so, although the music definitely propels the story, you could actually, in many places, take the music away and just do it as a play and it would work very well.”

Neither Ganey nor Molnar have to skate in their parts, but they do get to dance together for one of their favorite numbers, “Wallflower.” Ganey said she’s happy to stay off the skates. But Molnar, like Angel, remembers a childhood on four wheels.

“I used to be a really good roller skater back in the day. That’s what we did on Friday nights — went to the roller palace,” Molnar said.

She’s certain she won’t be the only one in the theater who can say that this week and next.