BEFORE the show begins, the voice of producer-director Bill Kenwright tells the audience not to feel shy about singing along with the songs.

They do not need telling.

They have come for a theatrical musical knees-up from the team behind runaway hit Dreamboats And Petticoats and do not intend to sit there quietly.

There will be singing, clapping, laughs, a few tears and a whole lot of shaking in their seats before the inevitable happy ending.

Some sniffily complain about jukebox musicals as if they are some lower form of art.

However, they are as valid as any theatrical form that entertains an audience.

It is giving an audience what they want, not what other people think they should have.

It’s not Shakespeare (thank goodness I hear some of you say) but it does make you leave the theatre happy and singing.

Save The Last Dance features – mostly – the songs of Pomus and Shuman, not a songwriting duo whose names are overfamiliar, but their hits certainly are. A Teenager In Love, Sweets For My Sweet, Viva Las Vegas, Can’t Get Used To Losing You, HIs Latest Flame and the show’s title track are among their hit parade.

It’s 1963 and sisters Marie and Jennifer go on a caravan holiday in Lowestoft without their parents.

Romance comes via the US air base nearby, a situation complicated by the inexperienced Marie taking up with a black GI.

Issues of race, sex and cultural differences are touched upon, but not lingered over, before the next musical number comes along – songs that have been chosen as much for the lyrics, which comment on the story and emotions, as much as the music.

There are enough good jokes to remind you that Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who wrote such TV hits as Birds Of A Feather, are the writers of the show.

Geordie Elizabeth Carter has a great voice and the innocence of Marie, with steely reserve coming through when her romance with Keiran McGinn’s equally well-sung Curtis goes awry. Lee Honey- Jones’s Milton is also a notable presence in an energy-fuelled company of singers and dancers.

  • Until Saturday. Box office 0844-8713024 and at gtickets.com/york