A mixture of fun and nostalgia, with a thick coating of sugar, is being served up in Save The Last Dance For Me at the Congress Theatre.

The team behind Dreamboats And Petticoats provides a new foot-tapping musical, following the love lives of two sisters in the summer of 1963.

On holiday for the first time without their parents, naive 17-year-old schoolgirl Marie (Megan Jones) and her more experienced sister, Luton factory worker Jennifer (Hannah Frederick), are invited to a dance at a US Air Force base in Lowestoft.

Marie falls for black GI Curtis (Jason Denton) and this leads to all sorts of problems because of the taboo surrounding inter-racial relationships at that time.

Jones and Denton produce powerful vocals in some excellent song and dance numbers, particularly Can’t Get Used To Losing You and Save The Last Dance For Me.

There are further impressive renditions of Sweets For My Sweet, Then He Kissed Me, A Teenager In Love, Please, Mr Postman and Tell Her, plus a superb acapella version of Hushabye, led by Graham Weaver as Carlo. Tosh Wanogho-Maud, playing Curtis’s Sergeant, Rufus, and AJ Dean are also prominent as both singers and dancers.

Choreographer Bill Deamer and musical director Marc McBride deserve top marks, while Mark Bailey provides imaginative sets and costume designs.

Writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran could have provided a stronger storyline and characters but they capture the feelgood factor.

This ensures that, once again, directors Bill Kenwright and Keith Strachan treat an appreciative audience to an entertaining musical romp.