The 80s have already generated a slew of screen-to-stage hits including Flashdance and Dirty Dancing. The nostalgia machine rolls on, gathering up £20 notes along the way, with this jukebox version of the Richard Gere and Debra Winger movie in which trainee US Navy pilot Zack carries factory worker Paula off to a life of cramped accommodation, constant relocation and soulless military bases.

The writer of the movie’s screenplay, Douglas Day Stewart, co-writes the book with Sharleen Cooper Cohen, and has a second attempt at getting it right on stage after a version with an original score bombed in Australia in 2012.

Here, repurposed 80s hits including St Elmo’s Fire, Kids in America and Material Girl are used artfully to carry the slight storyline. Nobody crashes and burns, it’s merely tastefully dull and lacking in genuine grit.

Just as Dirty Dancing on stage is all about that iconic lift, this is two hours of musical foreplay, geared towards the moment when Jonny Fines’s charmless Zack saves Paula in return for her saving him. It’s fairytale stuff that plays oddly in the context of 21st-century gender politics. Plus, for all the characters’ complicated backstories and anguished delivery of ballads, the lack of emotional involvement means the moment never feels earned.

There are several uncertain performances, but Emma Williams brings punchy intelligence to Paula, Rachel Stanley is strong as her mum, and it’s a smart move to give the women some of the best songs, including It’s a Man’s Man’s World. It’s a pity the show so insistently confirms that it is.

•An Officer and a Gentleman is at Curve, Leicester, until 21 April. Box office: 0116-242 3595. Then touring to 15 Sept.