There is an endearing goofiness to "Thoroughly Modern Millie" that makes this fluffy cloud of a musical a thoroughly entertaining way to spend a couple of hours in the theater.

The show has no dark secrets or deep meanings -- it simply exists to please, and DLOC's production of the 2002 Tony Award-winning best musical, which opened Friday, pleases well as a happy little celebration of the sheer joy of song, dance and the fine art of not taking anything particularly seriously.

Based on the 1969 film of the same name, the story is about Millie Dillmount (Brandy Collazo) coming to 1920s New York from Kansas to find fun, fortune and a fella. She is, she asserts, a thoroughly modern young woman who carves her destiny out of the romantic wilderness and marries not for love, but for the best business deal.

So, immediately she sets her sights on the boss, any boss, who, by the time she finds a job, turns out to be Trevor Graydon (Eric Neiman), who falls immediately in love with Millie's pal, Miss Dorothy Brown (Angelique Lucia), a girl who has come to town to seek her fortune as an actress, which, according to the musical, is why most girls have come to Manhattan. Trevor is smitten with Miss Dorothy because she has not yet bobbed her hair or raised the hem of her skirt like the less saintly young women who seem to populate New York.

So Millie is left without a boss to call her intended. Instead, there is Jimmy Smith (Matthew Brandon Hutchens), a wise-acre kind of fella who does not immediately hit it off with Millie, nor she with him. In fact, they claim to hate each other.

But everybody knows ingenues who find love before the first-act curtain are assured of a happy ending -- there's a rule in musicals regarding that. Not that the path for Millie is all champagne corks and rose petals. There's plenty of tough sledding for our gal.

And, it's not just romantic pitfalls. Millie and her pals have checked into the Hotel Priscilla, operated by the mysterious Mrs. Meers (Cynthia Myers) who speaks with a B-movie Chinese dialect and is worse than month-old milk.

It turns out Mrs. Meers runs the hotel to find orphans, and others who are alone in the world, to sell to a white slavery ring. And you'll never guess whom she tries to kidnap. No, not Millie, but you're as close as are Mrs. Meers' Chinese henchmen, Bun Foo (Austin Ku) and Ching Ho (Michael Cabanlit), two characters who punch all sorts of holes in the stereotypical Chinese-movie stock character.

Also blended into the occasion is Muzzie Von Hossmere (Melynda Kiring) a wealthy socialite who came from the outside and learned to be a knockout cabaret singer on her trip to the penthouse.

Sure, it's silly and far-fetched, but that's what makes it so much fun, with huge support from an enormously energetic cast that sings and dances its collective heart out -- particularly Kiring, Lucia and Collazo, who are hugely entertaining characters. Neiman is hilarious, as are Myers, Ku and Cabanlit, and Hutchens is the perfect, despite-all-odds leading man who, as well, is no slouch in the silliness department.

Director Ryan Weible infused the piece with the proper Roaring '20s spirit and choreographer Sheri Stockdale captured the era in movement. Musical director Cheryl Yee Glass led the pit orchestra that sounded as if it had been transported from 1922 with all the heat and energy intact.