It has never been considered especially cool to be a fan of Huey Lewis and the News. Even during its heyday in the 1980s, song and album titles such as “Hip to Be Square,” “Sports,” and “Fore!” — the last was a golf reference — summed up the image put forth by a group led by a man who looked like a shaving cream model, playing R&B-braised rock music that, while well-crafted, was often viewed as lacking the soul and spirit associated with those respective genres. 

Strangely, these shortcomings become assets of a sort in “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” the new show now bringing the group’s repertoire to Broadway. Jukebox musicals, for all their contemptible elements, can be most irritating when they try too hard either to deify an artist or to find fresh wit and relevance in a popular repertoire. One of the reasons “Mamma Mia” became an enduring hit is that it steered clear of both these strategies, choosing instead to have giddy fun with what happens to be one of the most inviting catalogs in pop music.