AUGUSTA, MICH.–The mobsters are back at the Augusta Barn.

They made their first appearance earlier this summer in “Bonnie and Clyde,” but now they’ve moved forward several decades for the musical version of Woody Allen’s movie Bullets Over Broadway. Decked out in fedoras and newsboy hats, the guys with guns are making their move from the night clubs with chorus girls to the Great White Way.

Caught up amid the tough guys is the Greenwich Village playwright, played by the very lanky Miguel Ragel WIlson, a first-year apprentice who gives David just the right amount of frustration, hope, idealism, and humor. Poor David desperately wants to see his play produced—with him as the director so that no compromises are made, but to do so, he must cast the talent-less girlfriend of the mobster who is willing to pay for the show, deal with quirky actors, fall under the influence of a Broadway diva and decide just how many rewrites he’s willing to do.

It’s especially fun to watch Wilson when his character is in shock over especially bad acting or when everyone disagrees with him. His strong vocal delivery matches his physical comedic acting in a perfect marriage.

Before the audience meets David, though, they meet the mobster Nick Valenti (Charlie King) and his tart of a girlfriend, Olive (played by Melissa Cotton Hunter, who has been specializing in ditzy ingénues this summer). He’s smitten with her, but she’s just out to wring whatever she can get from him, and what she wants is a starring role on Broadway, even if she lacks the talent to even make it at a dingy nightclub.

Hunter does a great job of being a painfully bad actress, giving her fellow actors plenty to work with when they must cringe at her performance and make their choices based on how much her delivery becomes like squeaky chalk on a blackboard. A highlight of the entire show is watching her try to convince David how much talent she has by singing a song about hot dogs.

Oh, and I mentioned this show is by Woody Allen, right? That alone should tell you not to bring the kids. You probably don’t want to have to explain what the song about hot dogs really means, though Olive offers to do so and the choreography and delightfully surprising costuming in the number leave nothing to be imagined.

Penelope Alex plays the somewhat fading diva, Helen Sinclair. It’s fitting that the Barn’s leading lady, an actress who can make short work of any role she takes on, should play a Broadway legend, even if it is a legend whose last few shows were failures and whose drinking problem isn’t just in quantity but in her eclectic choices of drink. She makes a wonderful seductress and fully commands the scenes with Wilson.

While the cast is huge and stellar performances were put in by all, it would be remiss not to mention Jonnie Carpathios who is the perfect thug as Cheech, Olive’s bodyguard and babysitter. Carpathios plays to type, only to show us that he and Cheech are so much more than they first appear to be. He gets the perfect character-establishing song with “’Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do,” which gives a novel outlook on crime and immorality. He’s fun to watch and scowls most expressively.

Directed by Hans Friedrichs, this show never slows down. It rapidly fires from one scene to the next, with cut scenes delightfully filled with gangsters, waiters, and showgirls. While “Bullets Over Broadway’ has its themes that could be delved into, and it has its moments that would seem to pull toward drama rather than comedy, Friedrichs makes sure each moment is given a light touch. He never loses sight that this is a comedy, that the show is cute, and that its truths are meant to be found in that which is most absurd.

As always at the Barn, the costumes deserve a shout-out for being detailed from head to toe and for putting each of its many performers, particularly the chorus, in multiple outfits. Costume designer Lauren Alexander did an especially fine job with the headgear in this show, using different types of hats to identify members of different mob gangs and making the ladies shine with hats that always perfectly matched their dresses.

There’s a lot of fun to be had in “Bullets Over Broadway.” It’s the perfect summer show—plenty of music, great dancing, and an over-the-top plot that delights not because it surprises, but because it so deliciously fulfills every expectation.