Remember the 1940s? No, I don't either, but I grew up with a lot of the music from that era. My parents were inveterate purchasers of the great Reader's Digest music collections, and our home was often resounding with recordings of the likes of Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman.

So, it felt like going home again to experience Moonlight Stage Productions' Swingtime Canteen, now playing through February 21 at the Avo Playhouse in Vista. It's a red, white and blue jukebox of a show, and if you love the music, you'll love how they perform it.

Yes, there is a plot, but it really doesn't matter. Fading Hollywood star Marian Ames (Jessica Couto) decides to pack up her troubles in her old kit bag after critics call her washed up. She heads to London to bring the Hollywood Canteen to the troops there, as well as on a radio hook-up to U.S. forces worldwide. Her company consists of Lilly McBain, the starlet (Alexis Grenier); Jo Sterling (Rae Henderson), her best friend; Katie Gammersflugel (Chelsey Moore), her worshipful niece; and Topeka Abotelli (Dr. Terry O'Donnell), the group's music director and accompanist.

The show consists of the group's opening performance and is pretty much a concert with a few plot developments thrown in here and there. And, the hits just keep on coming, such as "Sentimental Journey," "Don't Fence Me In," "How High the Moon," "You'll Never Know," and a beautiful a cappella version of "I'll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time."

Veteran director and choreographer Don Ward paces the show well, provides the cast with several effective dance routines that are the high points of the evening, and keeps the audience in the "golly gee whiz, let's get out there and win the war" 1940s without letting any of the postmodern irony of the contemporary era intrude. N. Dixon Fish's set and Bonnie Durben's properties fill the stage with red, white and blue, a theme echoed by Renatta Lehman's costumes. Paul A. Canaletti, Jr.'s colorful lights and Peter Hashagen's subtle sound design bring the audience into the action.

The singing is crucial, though, and under Dr. O'Donnell's tutelage, the cast fills the 80-minute, no intermission, production with Reader's Digest-quality sounds. While all of the performers do well, Ms. Grenier, who recently returned from studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, is a standout. Expect to see plenty more of her on our local stages.

You don't have to remember the 40s to enjoy its music. If you like your nostalgia served straight, no chaser, then Swingtime Canteen is the show for you.

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