Young Americans, a student-written musical ultimately bound for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, tells the story of six decades of rock and roll through monologues and original songs. By turns humorous and poignant, Young Americans is extremely entertaining.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, or Fringe Festival, is an annual performing arts festival, according to Paly theater director Kathleen Woods. The festival puts on between 1,500 and 2,000 performances in the space of one week.

Woods told the audience before the performance that Young Americans “is a work in progress.” The show is unpolished yet charming — actors occasionally forget lines and miss cues, flub some of the dance moves and don’t sing quite on key, yet none of these small imperfections take away from the enjoyable whole.

The show opens with a brief monologue from senior Alex Nee about the power and influence of rock and roll, setting the theme for the evening. Nee then joins a band that includes, over the course of the evening, junior Emily Barry, freshman Zachary Freier-Harrison, junior Zoe Levine Sporer and junior Nathan Wilen. The band plays simple but evocative music inspired by the rock and roll of the 1950s through 2000s, while the rest of the cast dances in the style of each decade. Although the dancing isn’t perfectly executed, the performers’ clear enthusiasm more than makes up for it.

Following this introduction, the show follows a set format. Rock music historians, or actors dressed in clothing from myriad decades, give the history of rock and roll starting with the 1950s. Interspersed between these facts, students perform monologues about how the music of the time affects them. At the end of each “decade,” the band performs a song inspired by the style of those years.

The stand-out of the first set of monologues is Walter’s, given by freshman Justin Krasner-Karpen. It spoofs the McCarthyism of the time, and Krasner-Karpen exaggerates the parody perfectly. Vocalist Wilen does an admirable job singing the sock hop-inspired song that ends the set.

During the set of monologues about the 1960s, senior Tom Marks gives an excellent performance as an adorably idealistic teenager trying to start a band that sings songs about the civil rights movement. Junior Maddie Sykes humorously portrays a beat poet high on drugs at the school talent show, and the surrounding ensemble delivers as the stoned students at her school.

The three monologues that represent the 1970s, given by sophomores Sam Bellows, Rachel Stober and Stephanie Spector, grow more serious in tone. Although all three have humorous elements, the monologues touch on the Red Power movement, the deaths of famous musicians, and women’s roles in punk rock, respectively. The set ends with sophomore Katie Maser, dressed like a punk rocker, performing with the band.

The 80s continue the pattern set by the 70s. Junior Mark Olson, dressed in drag, delivers a touching monologue to a disinterested Madonna. Senior Ian Quigley gives an excellent performance showing the dark side of drug use. Finishing out the decade, junior Hannah Crown humorously decries the invention of MTV, and senior Marc LeClerc — clad in tight leather pants and a blond wig — performs in front of a crowd of screaming girls.

The 1990s are one of the most enjoyable decades portrayed in the show. Sophomore Emmy Ingham beautifully plays a girl making a mix tape for her brother, who is overseas fighting in the first Gulf War. Senior Tess Bellomo likewise delivers a moving monologue about a school shooting caused by rock and roll. Finally, freshman Shannon Scheel humorously portrays a grunge singer who secretly loves the Backstreet Boys. The song representing this decade is performed by senior Emma Steuer, with back-up vocals by Barry and Crown. Although the vocals are not perfectly balanced, the song sums up the sound of the 90s perfectly.

The current decade is portrayed with actors in Obama shirts toting cell phones. LeClerc portrays a drummer who can’t get his drum sticks through airport security, as a crowd watches, cell phones in hand. Sophomore Rachel Mewes spoofs the Napster craze, and senior Kimi Forlenza is a vlogger who predicts that Obama won’t be able to win the election. The show ends with Nee and Sykes as hipsters, singing a catchy, beautiful song as the rest of the cast joins in.

Although the cast hasn’t put the finishing touches on Young Americans yet, Paly audiences are in for a treat, and attendees of the Fringe Festival will certainly like what they see.

The final performance is at 8 p.m. on May 29, in the Haymarket Theater. Tickets are $7 for students and seniors, and $10 for adults.