HENDERSONVILLE  — Flat Rock Playhouse’s “Bubblegum Pop” musical tribute on May 18 scored a hit with the audience, who responded with standing ovations at the end of the regular show and at the end of the encore.

The show, comprised of two 45-minute sets, separated by a 15-minute intermission, covered a wide range of the musical genres. About 150 people attended. The show ran May 17-20 and is part of FRP’s Music on the Rock series.

The three featured vocalists included Ryan Dunn, Annalyse McCoy and Jason Wooten. Providing backup vocals was Elizabeth Babelay. The men were clad in all-black, except for grey shirts, while the women wore candy-colored, youthful-looking outfits.

The five-piece band backing up the vocalists included George Wilkins, keyboard No. 1; Andrew Rogelberg, keyboard No. 2; Bill Altman, lead gutiar; Daniel Iannucci, bass; and Paul Babelay, drums.

The regular show ended with McCoy singing lead on Whitney Houston’s giddy 1987 hit, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” after which the audience cheered and pleaded for an encore.

The fronting trio turned, as if to leave, but quickly turned back with smiles, as Wooten told the audience, “We’ll do one more for you by the king of pop music.”

To the delight of the crowd, the group launched into Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock.” After the encore song, the crowd gave another standing ovation, but the house lights were turned up and the show — without a doubt this time — was over.

Highlights of the show included the talented performance by the vocalists and band members — and the effort to provide the history and color of bubblegum pop to the audience. One couldn’t help leaving without more knowledge of the genre.

However, an area that would have improved the show is choreography, as the vocalists simply sang the songs, or improvised their own choreography, when some basic choreographed moves would have added boundless to the fun of such upbeat music.

Still, the show amounted to a terrific effort, with much of the credit going to the production manager, Adam Goodrum; George Wilkins, music director; C.J, Barnwell, lighting designer and Kurt Conway, sound designer.

The show opened with the Chordettes 1957 classic “Lollipop.”

After that, one of the frontmen noted that “bubblegum pop is music that just makes you feel good.”

He then added that “the biggest period (for bubblegum pop) was from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. The biggest star was probably Davy Jones of the Monkees. This next one was their biggest hit,” he said. The FRP ensemble then launched into the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer.”

A frontman noted that “bubblegum pop had a good way of taking words and putting them to a new use... These are two excellent examples of that.” The group then performed the Ohio Express’ “Chewy, Chewy” and “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy,” with Dunn and Wooten, respectively, singing lead.

At that point, McCoy noted that “bubblegum pop really transcended decades... Here’s one from the 1980s,” as she sang — in apparent ecstasy — lead on Katrina & the Waves’ “Walkin’ on Sunshine.”

A frontman then noted that “bubblegum doesn’t have to be fast... It could be a slow song, where you hold” that partner in a tight embrace on the dance floor. The group then unleashed its rendition of Bobby Darin’s 1959 hit “Dream Lover.”

Other memorable songs of the first set included “Rockin’ Robin,” “Tears on My Pillow,” “Da-Do-Run-Run-Run,” “A Teenager in Love” and “My Baby Loves Love.”

The set ended with a fiery version of the Bay City Roller’s 1975 hit “Saturday Night.”

Following the intermission, the second set featured costume changes for the two women vocalists, while the men continued onward in their mostly black attire.

The first song of second set was “I’m in Love With Your Body,” followed by the Beach Boys’ “Kokomo.”

Next, McCoy gave a delightful female renditon singing lead on Tommy James & the Shondells’ hit “I Think We’re Alone Now.”

Perhaps the highlight second of the second set was the Archies’ 1969 hit, “Sugar, Sugar,” which was introduced byWooten as “probably the most famous bubblegum song ever.” 

Among the other more memorable second-set songs were “Rock Me Gently,” “One Bad Apple,” “I’m a Believer,” “Gimme Good Lovin’,” “All About That Bass” and “I Think I Love You.”

Regarding “Sugar, Sugar,” touted earlier in the FRP show as bubblegum pop’s greatest hit, Archies’ biographer Steve Huey noted, “Most ‘60s bubblegum groups were faceless studio concoctions, made up of hired professionals and given nominal group identities after the fact. The Archies made no pretense of being a real band in the first place — their music, including the smash hit ‘Sugar, Sugar,’ was ‘performed’ by the animated TV cartoon characters spun off from Archie comics. In reality, of course, they were a studio concoction made up of hired professionals (most notably lead singer Ron Dante), but in this case, they weren’t technically faceless.”