A two-hour romp through the late 19th century and early 20th century, it features real and fictitious characters and dozens of songs, including a rousing rendition of Yankee Doodle Dandy complete with the obligatory salute.

"It does have a lot of nostalgia," said Jason Fortner, 40, the director who also portrays the character Charlie. "The hardest part is people not knowing what it's about."

And therein lies the problem with Tintypes, which originated at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and enjoyed a 93-performance run on Broadway in 1980: the name.

What the heck is a tintype?

According to Webster's New World Dictionary, a tintype is a positive photograph taken directly on a thin plate of black-enameled iron coated with a sensitized emulsion.

Simply put, it was the latest photo technology around the turn of the century.

The show's characters are costumed stereotypes that could easily be staring out from one of those aging pre-World War I pictures. Each actor "morphs" into at least five other characters during the two hours, said LaWanda Walker, who plays Susannah, the unskilled working girl, as well as a paperboy and a man.

And they sing -- boy, do they sing -- almost nonstop. Out of roughly 120 minutes of show time, there is 117 minutes of music.

And with a cast of only five, "It's one of those shows where you really don't get a break," said Walker, 45, who also acts in Hungry Howies pizza and Amscot commercials.

But, she said, "It's kind of cool to be always out there."

That is, unless you're wearing a corset like Walker's castmate, Katie Larsen, who plays Anna Held, the famous Ziegfeld Girl, among others.

"I told her I'd be one mean woman back then if I had to wear one," Walker said.

Indeed, Larsen, 21, a theater major at the University of South Florida, calls the corset "that God-awful cinch around my waist."

Yet she smiles, sings and dances effortlessly.

"It does make me a little more graceful," she said.

Larsen and the rest of the cast are backed up by a five-piece band. With no real narration and only a few spoken lines, it is a true musical. And it will be the music that will draw people to the show.

"Once you know it's patriotic, that really pulls people in, especially now," Walker said.

If you go

Eight O'Clock Theatre will present Tintypes: An American Musical, at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Largo Cultural Center, 105 Central Park Drive, south of East Bay Drive between Highland Avenue and Seminole Boulevard. The show will continue for two more weekends: July 18-21 and July 25-28. Tickets cost $16 for adults, $6 for students. For information, call (727) 587-6793.

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