There is, I’ve decided, one exception to the truism that nostalgia isn’t what it used to be, and this occurs in the case of Sixties jukebox musicals. Each time one of these resolutely generic beasts arrives in a theatre, it’s greeted with the sort of audience enthusiasm only witnessed by the last piece offering Let’s Twist Again and Bobby’s Girl. A rare exception to the rule was the Su Pollard shocker Shout!, which came a cropper earlier this year, but on the whole our affection for anything set during the heydays of Harolds Macmillan and Wilson remains undimmed.

Thus it has proved with Dreamboats and Petticoats, which, in an oh-so-21st century twist, was inspired by the hit compilation albums of the same name. Certainly no one could accuse Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran’s book of anything like originality or depth but nonetheless the show has charm, energy and the innocence of a bygone time, which just about keeps us tapping our toes until we learn who’s won the 1961 songwriting contest organised by the National Association of Youth Clubs.

This hokey-sounding premise — as far as I could work out, the winners don’t actually finish their prize entry in time — is, of course, merely a hook for a series of teenage tribulations at the St Mungo’s Youth Club. Earnest Laura loves gauche Bobby, who is in turn hung up on slinky Sue, the flirt who thinks smooth-talking Norman might be the one. It’s all benign bunkum — why must they be teenagers in love? — which too many bland, over-miked voices take us through in a slew of tunes.

The real bright spot of Bob Tomson’s peppy production is newcomer Daisy Wood-Davis, who provides Laura with a lovely voice and something resembling a character. Her swotty glasses come off in the second half, as I’d rather suspected they might, although I lost the bet with myself on the teen pregnancy subplot.

D and P isn’t that sort of show. That’s the good thing about nostalgia: you can edit out the distasteful bits.
 
Booking to 12 September. Information: 0844 871 7615.