A thoroughly modern ‘Pajama Game’

A strike looms. Tempers flare. Management and labor are at each other’s throats. But these disgruntled employees are in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, not Hollywood, and they’re demanding a 7 1/2 -cent raise, not new-media residuals. In “The Pajama Game,” the 1954 Adler and Ross classic, love means taking a stand for what you believe in, even if your squeeze is on the other side of the negotiating table.

Whatever your position, those of you with time on your hands might want to head down to the Carpenter Performing Arts Center to take in Musical Theatre West’s spirited production, which does affectionate justice to this immensely affable show and its surfeit of irresistible tunes, including “Hey There,” “Steam Heat” and “Hernando’s Hideaway.”

“Pajamas are at the crossroads,” warns Sleep Tite pajama factory owner Mr. Hasler (Nils Anderson), and so is the budding romance between Syd Sorokin (Paul Dean), the hunky new supervisor, and spitfire Babe Williams (Darcie Roberts), proud union member and head of the grievance committee. She and her fellow seamstresses are going to the mat for what they deserve, and she’d rather break her own heart than sell out her co-workers by sleeping with the enemy.

Happily, director Steven Glaudini and musical director Daniel Thomas adhere to the streamlined aesthetic suggested by J. Branson’s lollipop-hued silhouette of a set and George Mitchell’s crisp costumes (the designs are from an earlier production). This staging doesn’t try to push the musical past its inherent scale, and the result is something fresher than any number of screen-to-stage extravaganzas currently clogging Broadway.

Unlike Golden Age musicals that show their age, “Pajama Game” feels appealingly modern, primarily because its tart book (by George Abbott and Richard Bissell, from the latter’s novel) creates a world of unpretentious working people possessed of sharp humor and adult sex drives. Babe and Syd have integrity, guts and savvy -- they’re not the small-town naifs of “Oklahoma!” or “Carousel” -- and what makes them lovable is their allegiance to something beyond themselves, not just the sparkle in their eyes.

As Babe, Roberts serves up plenty of sass and unforced foxiness: Just her basic stage cross could stop freeway traffic. When Syd walks by on the way to the water cooler, Roberts’ swoon in the middle of her feisty “I’m Not at All in Love” is ardent, comic and convincing all at once. And if Dean’s contained Syd can’t quite pull off some of the show’s straight-faced jokes (“Get me Ladies Pants”), he makes his reticence work for the character. “Hey There,” his duet with a Dictaphone, is affectingly unadorned.

A sunny Nick DeGruccio mostly hams up Hines, the time-study man obsessed with bombshell Gladys (Terra C. MacLeod), but he and the terrific Vonetta Mixson (as Hasler’s secretary Mabel) knock the ball clear out of the park with “I’ll Never Be Jealous Again.” Choreographer John Vaughan, working with an acrobatic, gung-ho dance team, creates a sexy group ballet for “Hernando’s Hideaway” and pays sleek tribute to Bob Fosse (the show’s original choreographer) with a “Steam Heat” performed in classic bowlers and tuxedos.

“These labor disputes can only end in one way,” says Syd, trying to reason with the recalcitrant Hasler. “Compromise.” With a little faith and pluck, Syd and Babe walk into the sunset together, their only future picket line a white fence in front of a little house in Cedar Rapids. Let’s hope Hollywood stages a similarly happy ending.

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‘The Pajama Game’

Where: Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; no 7 p.m. show Nov. 18

Ends: Nov. 18

Price: $25 to $53

Contact: (562) 856-1999, Ext. 4

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes