STAGE REVIEW : Celebrating the ‘60s in Song : Musical: ‘Beehive,’ the latest in a string of light musicals to land in San Diego, is a but joyous remembrance of the 1960s.

San Diego audiences can’t seem to get enough of such lightweight, buoyant musical revues as “Forever Plaid” and “Suds,” both box office sensations for the Old Globe Theatre.

“Six Women With Brain Death or Expiring Minds Want to Know,” which set all-time attendance records for the San Diego Repertory Theatre, also struck a chord unmatched in any other city where its creators tried it out.

As to why these shows flourish here--who knows? Maybe it’s a need for fun. Maybe it’s too much sun. For whatever reason, those with such appetites can get ready for the next course.

“Beehive,” a 1985 Off Broadway hit, just made a wild and raucously entertaining San Diego debut at the Theatre in Old Town.

“Beehive,” a six-woman revue of songs from the 1960s, answers the musical question: what were the girls were doing while the fictional “Forever Plaid” team was perfecting their harmonies? For starters, the girls were singing “Where the Boys Are.”

Such songs ultimately gave way to the social commentary of Janis Ian’s “Society’s Child” and the tortured passion of “Me and Bobby McGee,” the Kris Kristofferson-Fred Foster tune that Janis Joplin made so indelibly her own.

But for those who crave suds, plaids and brain death, don’t let references to such heavyweight numbers get you nervous.

This production of “Beehive” keeps everything bouncing brightly and breezily along. So “Don’t Sleep in the Subway,” darling, just grab your poodle skirts and penny loafers and hot rod it down to the Theatre in Old Town.

The company, which has had its share of missteps in its inaugural season as a theater wing of the Francis W. Parker School, hits a home run with this one.

Though not without its flaws, the revue scores on several counts. First, bows go to the music, backed by a dynamic four-person band on a raised platform. It’s hard to miss with 40 blockbusters from “My Boyfriend’s Back” to “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me” to “Proud Mary” and “Respect.”

The young, talented cast proves musically adept and funny at changing identities and styles with the music--some more than others. Yolonda Kelker knocks her songs out of the park, doing an Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner that shakes the rafters. But each ensemble member, while having some lapses, also offers up complementary strengths.

Remember Sonny and Cher, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Tina Turner and the Ikettes?

Clearly, director Paula Kalustian does. The send-up of Ross, played by Tajma Rain Soleil, is priceless. In her simpering, little-girl voice, she thanks the one person to whom she owes everything: “Me!” Afterward, her back up singers (Lisa Payton and Yolonda Kelker), struggling to be seen through her outstretched arms, shoot daggers at her through the rest of the number.

Then there’s the sing-off as a desolate Leslie Gore (Colleen Sudduth) wails “It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To,” and gets into a musical therapy session about why she’s crying with “best friends” Brenda Lee (Laura Lamun) singing “I’m Sorry” and Connie Francis (Rachel Lynn) offering a rousing alternative, “Where the Boys Are.”

The major problem with “Beehive’ is that it trails off rather than ends. Kalustian tries to round off the decade by inserting a 1970 Joni Mitchell song followed, lamely, before the sugar-dusted emptiness of “Make Your Own Kind of Music.”

Though the Mitchell song, “Woodstock,” is beautifully sung by Lamun, it still doesn’t succeed in pulling things together dramatically. And that’s probably a testament to how revues such as this one, which debuted Off Broadway in 1985, need periodic reworking.

While the span of the piece is the 1960s, creator Larry Gallagher never gives a reason--coherent or otherwise--for limiting the scope. One senses that Kalustian is trying to pull together a theme of social relevance by using narration during the song, “The Beat Goes On” to suggest a societal transition through the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the acceleration of the Vietnam War to the music that came out the other side.

A tighter and simpler focus on how music by and for women both reflected and inspired the way women saw themselves, their relationships and the world might have proved more effective.

Still, most of “Beehive” is quite satisfying--and fun. Kalustian, who directs the MFA Musical Theatre Program at San Diego State University, keeps the work moving nicely, creating sometimes funny and sometimes poignant off-stage moments as the main numbers go on.

She also has assembled a highly professional design team drawn mostly from the SDSU faculty. The one outsider, Jill K. Anthony, does a terrific job with the spunky, quick-moving choreography and the splendid quick-changing costume designs.

The performers, most of them young and fairly new to professional venues, also bear watching. Following Kelker in sheer singing ability is SDSU junior Rachel Lynn, an inspired comedienne and singer who does a great job with “Stupid Cupid” and other numbers. But Lynn needs guidance; she goes so far looking for the humor in Joplin that she misses the feeling that made her renditions “Piece of My Heart” and “Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)” such stick-in-the-gut songs.

Because of the greenness of the ensemble, one suspects they will mature and improve over the course of the run. That augurs well for a show that already has the makings to become San Diego’s next small revue sensation. “Beehive” may well be the show that puts the Theatre in Old Town on the map.

“BEEHIVE”

Created by Larry Gallagher. Director is Paula Kalustian. Musical direction by Terry O’Donnell. Choreography and costumes by Jill Anthony. Sets by Nick Reid. Lighting by R. Craig Wolf. Sound by Peter Nordyke. Stage manager is Brian Trent. With Yolonda Kelker, Laura Lamun, Rachel Lynn, Lisa Payton, Tajma Rain Soleil and Colleen Sudduth. At 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and Sundays at 7 with Saturday matinees at 2 through Feb. 22. Tickets are $15 adults and $13 for seniors, military and students. At 4040 Twiggs St., 688-2494.