By Julie Stern

BRIDGEPORT — “It’s just one chance in a million, but it just might work…”

Can the innocent little ingenue who blew her life savings on a bus ticket from Centerville, Utah, to New York City be picked to take the place of a Broadway star, conveniently laid up with a massive case of sea-sickness?

And when the WPA wrecking ball demolishes the theater on the afternoon of opening night, would it be possible for two fun-loving sailors to convince their captain to let them use their battleship as a replacement stage?

If you are saying to yourself, “Wait a minute, didn’t I see something like this in a Busby Berkeley movie, with Mickey Rooney, or Dan Dailey or Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler?” The answer is “well, of course!”

Dames at Sea, created by George Haimsohn, Robin Miller and Jim Wise in 1968, manages to be both a spoof and a celebration of those 1930s musicals which defied the misery of the Great Depression by putting up a brave façade of tinsel and tap-dancing, as if putting on a show was the only thing that mattered.

If the story is preposterous and the songs eminently forgettable, who cares? Dames at Sea, the current Downtown Cabaret Theatre production, is bursting with energy, enthusiasm and manic high spirits, which is exactly the point.

Director Richard Sabellico, who played in two off-Broadway revivals of the show, has assembled a terrific cast and put them through their paces with deftness and timing. Kirsten Wyatt as Ruby, the sweet but determined lass from Centerville, taps her way to like a frantic windmill. David Spangenthal is Dick, the clean-cut sailor, who just happens to have a sheaf of songs he has written in the hope of becoming the next Cole Porter when his hitch is up.

Laurie Gamache is sultry and temperamental as Mona, the spoiled star of the production, who has designs on both Dick and his songs. But it is Beverly Ward, as Joan, the tough, but kind-hearted chorine from Brooklyn, befriending Ruby and standing up to Mona, who really holds the show together.

There is hardly a scintilla of meaning in this show, except perhaps to celebrate the joy of putting your heart into something when times are hard. But with the assembled talent and the Cabaret’s usual high standards, this doesn’t matter. Everyone in the packed audience during a recent show was having a grand time.

And that wrecking ball, as it crashes through the brick wall of the theater, is an impressive bit of staging that was a visual treat.

(As the major spring production for DCT, Dames at Sea continues through May 14. Call 203/576-1636 for details on ticket prices for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances. The theatre is at 263 Golden Hill Street in Bridgeport).