BANDSTAND: The Broadway Musical on Screen: Directed by Lorenzo Thione, Matt Hoffman. With Carleigh Bettiol, Mary Callanan, Joe Carroll, Max Clayton. In 1945, as America's soldiers come home to ticker-tape parades and overjoyed families, Private First Class Donny Novitski, singer and songwriter, returns to rebuild his life with only the shirt on his back and a dream in his heart.