“All knowledge is precious, regardless of whether it serves the remotest human use,� declares one character early on in Alan Bennett’s impossibly entertaining “The History Boys,� now playing on Broadway through at least Sept. 3. Bennett's latest is a bracingly hilarious yet penetrating meditation on the nature of history and education as well as the character frailties that make us human.

Set in the 1980s in Northern England, the play concerns a group of eight young men taking an extra round of tutoring in preparations for tests and interviews to get into the prestigious universities of Cambridge and Oxford. One tutor, Hector (Richard Griffiths), is bigger-than-life in every way – a corpulent man nearing retirement, he flings on a leather jacket to roar around town on his motorcycle.

Hector believes it’s more important to leave his charges hungry for further intellectual pursuits rather than merely preparing them for college. He fills class time with the boys singing pop standards, performing scenes from classic movie melodramas and, in one hilarious scene, conducting a lesson on use of the subjunctive tense in the French language by having the boys enact a scenario in which one hires a prostitute. (You don’t need to know French to get the gist of the scene, but it helps if you understand the subjunctive tense.)

The ramrod Headmaster (Clive Merrison), however, is more interested in the boys’ getting into good schools than receiving treasured life lessons, so he brings in Tom Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore), a younger, no-nonsense sort who drives the young men toward excellence, which creates frisson for all involved. This is likely enough plot for most dramas, but Bennett – himself a former historian – adds provocative debate (can the Holocaust be discussed without trivializing it?) and moving subplots involving an unrequited love between two of the boys (an autobiographical touch from the playwright) and a brewing scandal at the school.

And Bennett keeps it all light with some wonderfully epigrammatic one-liners. A euphemism, Hector explains, is “a verbal fig leaf.� Irwin champions archaeology as “the closest history comes to shopping.� And the dry-as-dust Mrs. Lintott (Frances de la Tour), the lone female teacher we see at the school, decries male dominance by declaring, “History is women following behind – with a bucket.�

“History Boys� won scads of awards when first presented two years ago in London. Surprisingly enough, this is the first of Bennett’s plays in 30 years to land on Broadway – it’s at the Broadhurst on West 44 th, incongruously squeezed between “Spamalot� and “Phantom of the Opera.� But it does so with élan – every principle cast member of the original production appears here, and it’s impossible to single out a performer, as all draw their characters to perfection. Any trip to New York will be greatly enriched by attending a performance of “The History Boys.� Tickets available through telecharge.com