When the curtain goes up, if all goes well, a theater audience is treated to a flawless live performance. All the actors hit their marks, the plot is lively and engaging; a good time is had by all.

Unless … Sometimes what happens on stage is vastly different from what happens behind the scenes, which can be just as dramatic. Or melodramatic. Especially when you’re talking opening night of a play by an unproven playwright.

Broadway director and playwright Moss Hart, one of the brightest lights on Broadway in the 20th century, takes a look at life beyond the footlights in “Light Up the Sky,” his 1948 comedy based on show business people he knew.

Bremerton Community Theatre is staging “Light Up the Sky,” opening June 9, directed by Nancy Grant.

Grant said she chose the play for production at BCT after seeing it several years ago at the Seattle Repertory Theatre.

“It’s got big, juicy parts,” she said. “The five main characters are pretty equal.”

Several others have significant roles as well.

Carleton Fitzgerald, played by Bob Forman, is the overly dramatic director of the play. He is prone to expressions such as “I could cry!”

Owen Turner, played by a distinguished looking Bruce Hankins, is a paternal, more experienced playwright. He is said to be patterned after Hart. No wonder he’s wearing the only tuxedo.

Peter Sloan, played by Curtis Longo, is the nervous young playwright. This is his big break, with a rather obtuse play set in New York just after an atom bomb has been dropped on Radio City Music Hall. Talk about a downer.

Sidney Black, played by David Siskin, is the producer who has sunk $300,000 into the project. By 1948 standards, that’s a small fortune, and he’s not eager to lose it.

His wife Frances, played by Katrina Hodiak, is an ice skater who questions her husband’s investment strategies, although he always seems to come out on top.

Stella Livingston, played by Sylvia Shaw, is the mother of the lead, and only, actress in the play, Irene Livingston. She has seen the play in dress rehearsal, and is sure it’s going to bomb, an opinion she does little to hide.

Irene, played by Rhonda Romaine, is the classic high-strung egotistical actress, demanding to always be the center of attention.

Rounding out the cast are Patrick Gerrells as Tyler Rayburn, Irene’s mousy, older husband whom she apparently married “for comfort,” Eden McFadden, playing Irene’s ghost writer Nan Lowell, Joann Gillis as the maid, Eric Wise as Mr. Singh and Mr. Gallagher, Bob Luckey as a Shriner and Robert Montgomery as a plain-clothes man.

The play spans three time periods over 12 hours: the moments before opening, what the director calls “magic time;” the moments after the play, with the “magic” markedly diminished; and the moment when the reviews come in.

From the first it’s a roller coaster ride.

With all the parties involved gathered in Irene Livingston’s apartment for a series of opening night toasts, producer Black proclaims that the play will be a Roman candle stuck in the face of theater that will “light up the sky.” Of course, as everyone knows, Roman candles are also notorious for blowing up in the face of the person holding them.

Longo is a new face on local community theater scene, but the rest of the cast are veterans of many local productions.

Although it’s an ensemble cast Romaine stands out as the center-of-attention actress. She’s statuesque enough to pull off the dramatic effect of a pink satin, floor-length feather-trimmed peignoir and a Greta Garbo-style black and white evening gown. She’s alternately bossy and petulant, innocent and conniving.

The part brings out a comedic side to Romaine that has been too seldom seen in her recent roles, such as “The Smell of the Kill” and “Our Town.”

The casting of Gerrells as her husband is comedic perfection. He’s older, shorter, and obviously no competition for the spotlight. It’s not a large part, but it’s quirkiness adds to the enjoyment of the play.

Playwright Hart may have been writing about the angst of opening night, but he had little to worry about in his own career. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1936 for “You Can’t Take it With You,” written with his collaborator George S. Kaufman. He wrote, directed and produced many hit plays over his career, including directing the Broadway productions of “My Fair Lady” and “Camelot.”

He died of a sudden heart attack in 1961, at the age of 57. Fortunately, his plays live on.

“Light Up the Sky” opens June 9 and runs through July 2 at Bremerton Community Theatre, 599 Lebo Blvd., Bremerton. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets are $10 adults, $9 seniors and students, $7 under age 12, available at the box office or by phone at (360) 373-5152.