"Barry Manilow's Copacabana" goes down like a big stick of cotton candy. It's a great summer treat -- colorful and sweet -- but not completely satisfying.

The blame lies not so much with the Pittsburgh CLO production but with the musical itself. The show is a tribute to the Technicolor musical films of the 1940s, but not many songs (music by Manilow and lyrics by Bruce Sussman and Jack Feldman) stick with you afterward, aside from the title track that inspired the plot. (Pause here for Manilow fans to register their ire.)

Some of the tunes, particularly big club numbers such as "I Gotta Be Bad" and "El Bravo," harkened back to those 1940s films, thanks to excellent orchestration under musical director Tom Helm, but others, such as "Sweet Heaven," had a more pop flavor to them.

The loose story, written by Manilow, Feldman and Sussman, is told from the perspective of Stephen, a modern-day aspiring songwriter who imagines Copacabana, a world-famous club in 1947 New York. Fresh off the train from Tulsa, Okla., Lola gets a job as a Copa girl with help from Tony, who also works there. They fall in love, but then she catches the eye of Rico, who kidnaps her and takes her to Havana to be his paramour and performer in his nightclub. Tony goes to rescue her, and, as the song goes, there's a single gunshot, "but just who shot who?"

Tony Yazbeck does double duty as Stephen and Tony. His moves were great, particularly in "Dancin' Fool," but his voice lacked a certain depth until the second act. Chandra L. Schwartz is hilariously perky as the earnest Lola, especially in her audition numbers belting out a melodramatic "Man Wanted." Almost stealing the show is Sally Wilfert as Gladys, the brash former Copa girl with pipes to match her larger-than-life personality. She was an ideal foil to a funny Stephen Berger as Sam, the Copa's owner, and local Tim Hartman pulled in additional laughs in multiple roles.

Robert Cuccioli's deep hypnotic voice perfectly fit the suave but dangerous Rico, and Elise Santora hit the right angry and melancholy notes as Conchita, his jealous lover.

With complicated dance numbers, elaborate costumes and fantasy sequences, director Charles Repole has his work cut out for him. He meets the challenge of echoing that Hollywood period, down to the movie-like fadeout at the end of Tony and Lola's story. However the overlap between Stephen and Tony in "Havana" at the beginning of Act II was confusing, and the gun scene later felt rushed and almost anticlimactic.

Along with Repole's direction, John MacInnes' choreography captured that Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers flair, but on opening night the dancers weren't always in sync, a point that likely will improve with repeated performance.

The two-hour show went by quickly and easily, and the opening-night crowd showed its appreciation for a pleasant summer evening's worth of song, dance and Technicolor memories.