NOW PLAYING—Starring in the Cabrillo Music Theatre’s production of “The Andrews Brothers,” from left, are David Engel, Larry Raben, Darcie Roberts and Stan Chandler. With his latest effort, the uproarious “The Andrews Brothers,” writer-director Roger Bean continues his string of entertaining jukebox musicals in a show presented by Cabrillo Music Theatre.

“The Andrews Brothers” is the 10th show Bean has written for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. His modus operandi is to focus on a specific time period from American musical history and write a show around the songs. Bean’s “The Marvelous Wonderettes” is currently in its second year playing off-Broadway.

The premise of “The Andrews Brothers” is simple: It’s 1945, and the famous Andrews Sisters are set to entertain at a USO show in the Pacific, but when Laverne Andrews contracts chicken pox, the act is quarantined.

Enter three brothers, who happen to be named Andrews, who happen to be performers and who happen to be working as the sisters’ stage crew. Rather than cancel the show, the brothers decide to masquerade as the sisters and do the show themselves. Once we get past all of these ridiculous assumptions, the fun starts to happen.

Here, as in other Bean musicals, the cast is limited to a quartet of performers. Flat-footed Max (David Engel), asthmatic Patrick (Larry Raben) and myopic Lawrence (Stan Chandler) are the brothers, while Peggy Jones (Darcie Roberts) rounds out the act as the Andrews Sisters’ backup singer.

Left to their own devices, the four work out a plan to put on a show of their own.

In Act I, too much unnecessary, forced dialogue leads into the songs. The only important development other than the discovery of the sisters’ illness is that Peggy falls for Patrick and spends most of the act getting him to loosen up.

The songs alternate between the familiar (“Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar,” “On a Slow Boat to China”) to the refreshingly obscure (the marvelous patter song, “Breathless” and the gorgeous “I Wanna Be Loved,” an Andrews hit that wasn’t recorded until 1950, sung here in a ravishing solo by Roberts).

After intermission (which features vintage film clips of cartoons, newsreels and wartime propaganda), the show gets into gear and the boys get into dresses. After the initial waves of laughter following their first number, a question comes to mind: How long can these guys hold the audience’s interest in what is basically a one-joke act—clumsy guys trying to sing and dance while wearing high heels, heavy makeup and women’s clothing?

Fortunately, director Nick DeGruccio and choreographer Roger Castellano fill the second act with enough shtick to keep things moving at a fast pace. With virtually no dialogue, Act II is nonstop hilarity, with slapstick, spot-on comedic timing and great vocal arrangements.

The hit parade also continues: “Bei Mir Bist Du Schön,” “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” are all here, but we also get other wonderful songs like Livingston and Evans’ “Stuff Like That There” and the exquisite “I Want to Linger.”

Chandler, Engel and Raben all sing in the same register, which makes for easy vocal arranging, although Lloyd Cooper’s crackerjack jazz band has to play in some difficult keys in order to accommodate them.

All three male actors, original cast members from “Forever Plaid,” are terrific, with Raben the funniest cross-dresser since Jack Lemmon in “Some Like It Hot.”

The delightful Roberts manages to keep pace with the manic antics (no easy task).

“The Andrews Brothers” is not just for old-timers. It is silly, old-fashioned fun, with a bushel of terrific songs. That’s something to write home about.

The musical continues through Feb. 14.

For ticket information, visit www.cabrillomusictheatre.com.