Americans who live outside the South find Southern accents comical, part of the reason Manoa Valley Theatre has enjoyed success several times with “;Southern-style”; comedy. There was the Louise Seger character in “;Always, Patsy Cline”; in 2008, “;Duck Hunter Shoots Angel”; in 2009, and now “;The Dixie Swim Club.”;

The story combines elements of “;Steel Magnolias”; and “;Same Time Next Year.”; Five members of a championship college swim team, all Southern belles born and bred, meet for a weekend each summer to catch up.

We watch them deal with an array of problems—marital, parenting, health-related, career burnout, deaths of loved ones and the inescapable process of aging and its toll on the psyche. We watch them fight among themselves, then come together again tighter than ever.

We meet them first when they're 44. The next time we see them they're 49, and again at 54. The final scene jumps forward 23 years. They're 77.

The story is the work of three writers, one of whom has major credits writing sitcoms. It's no surprise, then, that the scenes have the flow and pacing of a network sitcom, or that the characters are “;wunzas”; as in “;wunza career woman, wunza redneck”; and so on.

Like most sitcoms, the story is intended to entertain without requiring an emotional investment. Director Betty Burdock and her talented cast deliver on all counts.

Suzanne Green plays Sheree Hollinger, the always-organized team captain, group cheerleader and advocate of healthy living, whose biggest problem is becoming a grandmother before expected. Green was annoying as Louise Seger in MVT's “;Always, Patsy Cline”; but is a delight playing close-to-perfect Sheree.

Stefanie Anderson, unrecognizable under a bright blond Greg Howell hairdo, is self-centered Lexie Richards, a woman whose primary interests are her own importance, looking no older than 32 for as many decades as possible and turning the head of every man she sees.

Bree Bumatai is career woman Dinah Grayson: successful, strong, never married and a borderline alcoholic. Bumatai's performance reveals glimpses of defiant loneliness behind the brave smile and cheerful recourse to the well-stocked bar.

Holly Holowach has many of the best comic lines as a stereotypical redneck and hard-luck case, Vernadette Simms. Announcing that her son is going be a father, she says, “;It was a positive DNA match.”; Holowach enhances her performance with broad physicality, making her a clear audience favorite at last Saturday's matinee.

Karen Meyer is Jeri Neal McFeely, who joined a religious order after college and is usually the group's peacemaker. But she, too, is capable of anger.

Each is perfectly cast. Expect little more than light comedy and fine acting, and you'll find what you're looking for.