Like the 1982 song that gives the show its title (and which is one of only three previously extant Kinks numbers included in the evening), Ray Davies’ musical is informed by nostalgia both general and particular. It looks back fondly at the culture of spending Saturday nights down the palais de danse in the late 1950s on the eve of the rock and roll revolution; specifically, it is infused with reminiscences of two of his older sisters. He even refers to the Wallers, on whom his story centres, as “my family” for the purposes of the evening.

For in addition to writing the music, lyrics and (with Paul Sirett) book of the show, Davies also appears as a narrator. He sets up the story of 18-year-old Julie’s first visits to Ilford Palais with her family under the watchful eye of MC and crooner “uncle” Frankie; her eagerness to dance but embarrassment at her limp, a legacy of childhood polio; her uneasy courtship by Borstal boy Tosher, and the aftermath of a ruckus on the dancefloor one night. Perhaps in acknowledgement of the diversity of Stratford East’s usual audience, the otherwise all-white cast and story also include a first-wave Jamaican immigrant sax player, for whom Julie falls, and a proto-soul singer.