There’s something about the holidays that brings out the yearning for nostalgia, and the CSTOCK musical opening Friday has nostalgia to spare.

“1940’s Radio Hour” is set in a small New York radio station, WOV, as the crew assembles for a live broadcast of “The Mutual Manhattan Variety Cavalcade from the Hotel Astor’s Algonquin Room,” on Dec. 21, 1942. It’s coming up on the second Christmas after Pearl Harbor, and a melancholy feeling hangs in the air.

The gang of singers, musicians, station workers and hangers on is like one big family, complete with all the squabbling and rivalry. While the singing is the center of the piece, subplots swirl behind the microphone.

Nerdy delivery boy Wally Ferguson, played by Adam Cromie, lurks around hoping for his shot at the microphone, while second banana Neal Tilden, played by Joseph Connors in a very bad plaid outfit, schemes to take over the lead singer position from the drunken and boorish resident big shot Johnny Cantone, played by Charles Platten.

Jealousy also simmers among the four female singers. Waitress-turned singer Ginger Brooks, played by Danielle Priest, spends more time on her makeup than on practicing her songs, while Tatiana Zappardino plays Connie Miller, a fresh-faced kid with a crush on the crooner Cantone. Missi Patti plays Ann Collier, the jaded station veteran and Jacque Hamilton plays Geneva Lee Browne, a sassy jazz diva from Kansas City.

Clifton A. Feddington, played by Rich Jacobson, is the station’s general manager who rules at the top of his lungs. Eric Engelhard is the clean-cut young singer B.J. Gibson and Nathan Chollar is the trumpet-playing Biff Baker, about to turn in his horn for fighter pilot wings.

Rounding out the cast are Dale Borer as sound man Stanley Gallagher, Bob Forman as stage doorman “Pops” Bailey and Ken Kidder as stage manager Lou Cohn.

This is the first time in the director’s seat for Chris Borer, but his involvement with the Central Stage Theater of County Kitsap goes back 10 years. He was assistant director on “Les Miserable,” and has acted and run lights.

It’s also a family affair. His wife Anna isn’t in this show, as she’s home with their new baby, but Borer’s mother-in-law Carol Chollar is the assistant director, father-in-law Bruce Chollar is the set painter, Nathan Chollar is his brother-in-law and Dale Borer is his dad.

Chris Borer is not a stranger to the show, as he acted in it while a student at Olympic High School and said he fell in love with it then.

When Borer was asked what he was looking for at auditions for the show, mother-in-law Chollar chimed in “a miracle!”

Borer agreed, and added “we have the perfect cast — it’s what we wanted and what we got.”

The play was written by Walton James, and better described as a play with music than as a musical.

Familiar songs include “Blue Moon,” “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

The cast is a mix of CSTOCK regulars and a few new faces. This is the first CSTOCK show for Zappardino, who moved here recently from California, and the first stage appearance ever for Hamilton, although you’d never know it the way she struts the stage with confident sass. Her rendition of the Duke Ellington classic “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good “ will give you goose bumps.

It’s also the first show for Nathan Chollar, who pointed out that his uniform jacket is authentic — it’s the one his grandfather wore in WWII.

This show is a return to the stage after a 30-year hiatus for Jacobson, who was shocked to get the lead role.

“It’s worked out really great,” he said. “I would have been happy to paint sets.”

A treat of the musical is that the singers are backed up on stage by a live studio orchestra, featuring Morgan Gray on drums, Music Director Kim Enloe on piano, Jim Garcelon on bass, Chris Poole and Leah Barnes on trombone, Terrell Stephens on flute, sax and clarinet, Clarice Nash on sax and Emily Kershaw joining Chollar on trumpet.

Borer thought the show was a good pick for the holiday production because it is fun for the whole family, from grandparents who know the songs to kids who are hearing them for the first time. There’s also a certain poignant timeliness to the show, set in wartime.

“The show is set post-Pearl Harbor and we’re now post-9/11,” he said. “It really hits home. History repeats itself.”

“1940’s Radio Hour” opens Nov. 18 and plays weekends through Dec. 11 at the CSTOCK Musical Theatre at the Silverdale Community Center, 9729 Silverdale Way NW, Silverdale. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 6 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $12 adults, $10 seniors and students, $7 children, available at the Kitsap Mall information booth and at the door. wu