DOWNEY — There is no opening curtain to the musical “Dames at Sea,” being staged weekends through March 8 by the Downey Civic Light Opera at the Downey Theatre, 8435 E. Firestone Blvd.

And the opening overture isn’t heard until some 10 minutes into the feel-good production making fun of the Busby Berkeley musicals of the 1930s.

Patrons entering the theater are greeted by open curtains showing a backstage scene. Several stagehands silently walk around moving props and adjusting lights. Several young women come out and practice a few dance steps, then leave.

It isn’t until Stage Manager/Producer Hennessey, portrayed by David Kirk Grant, tells orchestra leader Steven Dahlke to “begin rehearsal,” that we get a sample of the bouncy 1930s style music we will hear later.

Marsha Moode, producer/director of the show and executive director of the Civic Light Opera company, has done it again, adding numerous new aspects to make the stage play more interesting and a better fit for the Downey theater.

“I created half the cast,” Moode said, explaining that the original off-Broadway production, written in the mid-1960s, had just six characters, two piano players and a drummer. Her cast has 13 and a stage band.

She tells the audience during intermission that the play, set in the Depression-era 1930s, was selected for production last summer, before the economy got as bad as it is now.

It is now more timely then ever, with songs telling about a man who loses his fortune on Wall Street, people out of work and “starving the America way,” but with the optimistic number in the middle of the show declaring “Good Times Are Here to Stay.”

None of the songs, with music by Jim Wise and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller, made the hit parade, but they are cute, snappy numbers which make your toes tap along with the dancers.

All of the characters can sing but the choreographing of Gitana Van Buskirk is a main feature of the show. And in true Busby Berkeley style, all of the characters — stage hands and sailors who just happen to be on leave and visiting a theater in New York — break into spontaneous song and dance at the drop of a hat and perform flawlessly.

In act one, on the open stage, performers are getting ready for the grand opening of the show, “Dames at Sea,” when they learn that the theater is being demolished.

Will they find a new location at the last minute so the show can go on? Of course they do. Wesley Alfvin, playing Dick, the lead sailor, proposes they relocate the play, scenery, costumes and props to his ship in New York Harbor.
But will the ship's captain allow that?

By coincidence, the captain, also played by Grant, happens to be an old flame of Mona, the famous, high living and loving, experienced woman, portrayed by CLO veteran Ann Peck McBride at her bawdy best, with her strong voice but not too proud to indulge in some humor.

The second act finds us on board the ship, only the second and last prop used.
True to form, we have Ruby, played by Emily Moffat, fresh off the bus from Utah, who wants to be a star and gets a job in the show immediately after being taken under the wing of Joan, a good-hearted veteran performer played by Laura Dickinson.

Ruby and Dick find they are old acquaintances from Utah and are the lead love focus. But Dick, a talented songwriter who produces music on the spot, is grabbed up by the overbearing, haughty Mona.

Will the lovelorn Ruby return to Utah without being a star and leaving Dick behind. Of course not. Audiences of the 1930s, who liked happy endings, would not stand for it.

If you can’t guess the ending and want to be surprised, stop reading here.
If you are still reading, you know that Ruby will replace Mona as the star at the last minute (Mona gets seasick) and of course the show is a hit and Ruby and Dick plan a “simple” wedding, along with Joan and a sailor named Lucky, played by Bart McHenry; and of course Mona and the captain.

Grant, who has a Paul Lynn-like persona; Dickinson and Alfvin are the only performers who are members of Actors Equity. The rest are talented part-timers who still have lots of regional and community theater experience.

Amid the mid to late 60s counter culture, why did the writers place the show in the Depression era 30s when the current economy was fairly good? There was conflict about the Vietnam War and the writers apparently longed for a more simpler time, when unemployment, not war, was the only issue.

Additional “Dames at Sea” performances are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and again March 6 and 7 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday and March 8.

For information and ticket reservations, call (562) 923-1714.

And if you like 1930s musicals featuring dancing, Moode promises more of the same with the production of “42nd Street,” weekends May 28-June 14.

That show originated about 1980, Moode notes.