Ding-dong, as MacGill might say, Broadway is the big time.

Although the buttery-voiced swinger originally hails from Southern California, he has called Spokane home since 1985. Northwest audiences may recall his Planet Lounge Orchestra, a variety band that specialized in private parties.

"It wasn't strictly a swing band," says MacGill. "We played some Cajun music, some blues and '50s rock 'n' roll. It was a lot more eclectic."

In 1995, he formed the Spirits of Rhythm, named after a 1930s group known for its vocal work. On the way to creating the group's energizing 1998 CD, "Jump," the Spirits of Rhythm used a pool of performers from around the Northwest. Seattle bass player Cary Black has been a regular figure during the past four years as has Portland guitarist-singer Rebecca Kil-gore, among others.

For MacGill, a 30-year veteran of music halls and wedding receptions, it's been a long journey to Broadway. When he was leading his Northwest bands, he says, "I'd be on the phone all day long trying to book gigs. Then we'd do gigs and I'd be hauling equipment and driving all over the Northwest and on and on. In a lot of ways, Broadway is a heck of a lot easier."

So it's no problem for MacGill and the chorus of the new Broadway musical revue, "Swing!'' to exercise their vocal cords on their day off. Besides, recording an original Broadway cast album is a chance at showbiz immortality and, more importantly, residuals.

But MacGill almost missed out on his Broadway performing debut.

"('Swing!' director) Lynne Taylor-Corbett heard my CD and called me,'' MacGill says. "After deciding it wasn't a practical joke, I had a conversation with her, which led to me coming to New York last May. That's when I wrote `Kitchen Mechanics' Night Out' for the show.''

MacGill also performed for the show's producers and was invited to join the cast, but declined. The Spirits of Rhythm had only recently released the CD that brought him to Taylor-Corbett's attention and there were touring plans involved.

"I felt that it was incumbent upon me to stick with Plan A,'' he says. "So I did. Then I came back to New York at the beginning of August and did some more musical arranging for the show. By Labor Day, I was pondering the soundness of my original decision, thinking: 'Am I just a complete idiot?'''

Following discussions with the show's management, MacGill joined the company as one of five headliners. The other singer-songwriters who lead the cast include prized New York cabaret chanteuse Ann Hampton Callaway and live wire Everett Bradley. The superb Laura Benanti and Michael Gruber round out the leading voices.

MacGill gets the show rolling as he stands in a pool of light downstage, playing his ukulele and warbling an introduction to "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing).'' Suddenly, the show's excellent eight-member band, the Gotham City Gates, swings in with Harold Wheeler's lush orchestrations and the joint jumps for the next two hours.

The opening moment is practically the only quiet one in the show, although there are several ballads and torchy melodies included. Besides the "Kitchen Mechanics'' number, which was co-written with Jonathan Smith, Taylor-Corbett and Paul Kelly, MacGill's other songs in the show include "Rhythm'' and "I'm Gonna Love You Tonight.'' Director Taylor-Corbett also is credited with additional lyrics on the latter piece. (The director-choreographer has had her own Northwest exposure: She will soon return to Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet to revive her 1996 work, "The Quilt.'')

MacGill portrays a band leader in "Swing!'' - although there is no discernible story line - as the musical surveys great tunes by Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer and others. But besides the great music of swing, the show also celebrates the swelling ranks of swing dancers.

"Swing dancing really got lost in the early '60s,'' says the 49-year-old MacGill, "when people started dancing to rock 'n' roll, apart from each other. In the last few years there's been a big renaissance - not just of the music - but also of partner dancing. Playing dances in Portland and Seattle, I've loved being up there and having hundreds of kids out there dancing the Lindy Hop, or whatever, and we're all moving together in the music.''

At times, though, the incredibly athletic dancing by the gorgeous young cast of "Swing!'' may make you feel a little old and a little tired. These dancers are so finely tuned that there are featured specialists in the Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, Latin Swing and Western Swing. Unfortunately, Lindy performers Ryan Francois and Jenny Thomas, who have numerous dance championships to their credit (as do several others), have been battling injuries and missing performances.

Among the others, there is never a step dropped nor a move missed as they execute their flashy stuff. A particular pleasure is the Western Swing couple, Robert Royston and Laureen Baldovi. Royston is the most unlikely looking dancer on Broadway - let's just say he's rather solidly built - but the cool confidence he exhibits and the clean lines of his work with his partner show that they belong in this delicious cast.

The other dancing pair that deserves mention is Catlin Carter and Edgar Godineaux, who partner in a steamy, heartbreaking rendition of Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer's standard, "Blues in the Night.'' A perennial favorite for her distinctive work in shows such as "Chicago,'' Carter also plays opposite a bass fiddle in Earl H. Hagen's "Harlem Nocturne.'' Her earthy persona and lithe sensuality are reminiscent of the great Gwen Verdon - some smart producer should grab her now and create a show around her.

The critical notices for "Swing!'' aren't all raves. Musical revues have dimmed the luster of the Great White Way a bit this season and some critics have begun to mumble to themselves, in print, about theme-park-style musical revues. It's true that there are too many half-baked musical ideas making it to Broadway. But commercial theater was ever thus and probably ever shall be.

Meanwhile, anyone with a pulse can't help being moved by the life and energy present in "Swing!'' Even when it wobbles, as it does several times, it still throbs with a distinctive rhythm.

The revue is playing an open-ended run at the St. James Theatre, 246 W. 44th St., with tickets running $20-$75 and available at 800-432-7250.

For now, then, it seems a good thing there was still room for the swinging MacGill when he decided to give it a go.

"I'm very lucky to be here,'' he says.

Ding-dong.