Capitalizing on the recent Broadway success of throwback revivals and adaptations from 1950s and 60s like The King & I, The Light In The Piazza, and An American In Paris, a pre-Broadway tryout of Roman Holiday just premiered in San Francisco this week at SHN's Golden Gate Theater after two weeks of previews. Hamilton it is not, but if you're in the mood for some light distraction set to the enduringly catchy music of Cole Porter, you won't be bored.

Based on the 1953 film of the same name, famous as a breakout role for then 24-year-old Audrey Hepburn (earning her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe), this sometimes saccharine new musical adaptation comes with a book by Paul Blake (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) and veteran sitcom writers Kathy Speer and Terry Grossman, and it's set to over a dozen beloved Porter hits, including the highly recognizable and earworm-ish "Night and Day," "You Do Something To Me," and "Just One of Those Things." In the lead role, Stephanie Styles is funny and shows off a lovely singing voice, and with every third word of dialogue she seems to be consciously trying to channel Hepburn and her Continental accent.

In the Gregory Peck role of American newspaperman Joe Bradley is former Waitress and Jersey Boys star Drew Gehling, who is more than likable and has a mellifluous tenor voice, though I'm not sure there's ever sparkling chemistry between him and Styles.

Now, among aficionados of musical theater and Porter in particular, there may be some bristling about the fact that this production cannibalizes songs that were originally written for other shows. "You Do Something To Me," for instance, was the opening number in Porter's 1929 show Fifty Million Frenchmen, "Just One of Those Things" comes from 1935's Jubilee, and also in the Roman Holiday score there are songs written for Porter's most famous show, Anything Goes, like "Take Me Back To Manhattan," "Let's Step Out," and "Goodbye, Little Dream, Goodbye." This may simply be the result of the awkward difficulty of the jukebox musical genre when you're drawing on the oeuvre of someone who wrote a ton of music for the stage. (An American In Paris, which is coming to SHN next season, does something similar with the songs of George and Ira Gershwin, but in that case, there was an earlier musical film to draw from that already contained eight Gershwin songs and a ballet, and all that was needed was a few more songs.) But it makes for a show that feels more like pastiche, or like a cobbled together imitation Cole Porter musical where the songs almost, but don't quite, fit into the story.

The plot centers on a cloistered British princess on a European tour who rebels, escapes her keeper — in this case her countess aunt played by the impossibly delightful Georgia Engel, who gets most of the show's best lines — and spends a day wandering Rome with a handsome stranger. That stranger, Joe, is a reporter who pretends not to be collecting material for an exclusive on the princess, but then we're supposed to believe that he falls in love with her, and even though he may never see her again, he [SPOILER ALERT] tosses out the story (and in this version a $5000 paycheck) out of respect for her privacy.

In the role of his photographer pal Irving, fellow Jersey Boys alum Jarrod Spector is a funny and compelling foil with an equally good voice. And rounding out the supporting cast is Sara Chase (best known as Cindy Pokorny, mole woman, on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), playing Irving's voluptuous songstress girlfriend Francesca.

The story, and especially its chaste, unsatisfying conclusion, feels like the piece of this adaptation puzzle that is the most dated, and it hasn't aged well. The writers would have been wise, perhaps, to anger fans of the original movie and come up with a new ending that takes into account everything we know about British royals today — namely that they're totally open to sleeping with and marrying non-royals.

But all that being said, I wasn't rolling my eyes through this one. The music, the fine choreography by Alex Sanchez, and Georgia Engel's handful of comedic bits are enough to float one's attention through two brisk acts. And when it gets to Broadway it seems likely to please the same audiences who clamored for the throwback romance of The King & I, and the other shows I've mentioned. But I think most of us can agree that the world needs more new art, and less of the recycled kind — even if the latter may be good for a few laughs and some old familiar melodies.

Roman Holiday plays through June 18 - Find tickets here.