Lace up your saddle shoes. Grease back your hair. “Bye Bye Birdie” is back in town in a community production at Bangor High School’s Peakes Auditorium. With a peppy cast of nearly 40 local actors singing and dancing in this fund-raiser for Penobscot Theatre, there hasn’t been this much bubble gum and bobby socks in town since “Happy Days” went off the air.

But that’s the real joy of this teeny bopper to-do: the fluff and frolic of its performers. Overlook the off-key singing, the missed lighting cues, the stageful of arms and legs that just can’t seem to find the same beat in the music. This is schmaltz. Not the type that embarrasses its actors, but the type that generally entertains all the parents, siblings, teachers, grandparents and best friends in the audience.

Directed by Tom Logan, who runs the theater’s Creative Arts Program, this all-out show has given his young students, as well as an appreciated handful of older hambones, a forum in which to wear greasepaint. It’s just plain fun, and there really isn’t an unbearably dull moment in the play.

In fact, there’s so much activity onstage that it’s sometimes hard to know where to look. While one guy is doing hip thrusts at center stage, a whole world of conversations, dances, flirtations and family feuds is going on in the background. There’s no feast or famine in this show — only feast.

Partly that’s because the 1950s were such a cut-loose time, with morals and fashion and music going places they had never been. And this darling story, about the small-town girl, Kim, who wins the chance to give the final kiss to singing sensation Conrad Birdie before he is drafted, captures all the soda pop of that era. A. Alyssa To her best ingenue role as Kim, and John Ferreira sneers and struts as Birdie.

They get decent support from Tim Bragg, as Kim’s boyfriend, and Kim Horn, as her girlfriend (and singing partner), not to mention a horde of screaming girls. The whole entourage of teens gets great support theatrically from the hilariously nerve-wracked Nick Grant as Kim’s father, and the henpecking Karen McCall as Mama Peterson.

The real story, of course, is not about Birdie, but about his manager, Albert, who gave up aspirations to teach English in order to manage Birdie’s career. With the help of his morally superior secretary, Rose, who happens to be in love with him, he gets back on track.

Steve Gomley, as Albert, gives a heartfelt and talented performance. He is one of those rare actors who says and sings everything loud enough for everyone to hear — even in a theater with acoustics as poor as Peakes has. And this is someone you definitely want to hear, especially when he sings. As Rose, Robin Verow is sometimes compelling, but as is the case with many of the actors in this musically challenging show, the songs are often just outside her range. Musical director Richard Pasvogel might have done more to find a comfort zone for these untrained singers, but he obviously has his hands full trying to coordinate his own, somewhat shaky mini-orchestra.

Before the show comes to its happily-ever-after ending, the whole little town of Sweet Apple, Ohio, and a few hearts-in-love get turned into applesauce because of the Elvis-like Birdie.

Kelly Holyoke’s poodley choreography, and a wide and colorful array of at-the-hop costumes, give the stage real punch. Drea Galyean and Mark Torres’ set design, with scaffolding, push-on segments of rooms, and a floating window that gets the bump now and then, is stark, but allows the maximum number of dancers to do all those great 1950s dances without kicking each other.

“Bye Bye Birdie” will be performed 8 p.m. Nov. 5 and 6, and 2 p.m. Nov. 7 in Peakes Auditorium at Bangor High School. For tickets, call 942-3333.