The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield has a reputation for staging quality musical theatre and their current offering enhances that reputation.

This effervescent production proves that Cole Porter’s wit and songwriting has lost none of it potency.

The innovative opening sequence, set in a nightclub, replaces the traditional overture with a pianist and trumpet player who offer a taste of the musical delights to come.

This classic musical is crammed full of familiar, well-loved numbers with a storyline that is hectic, madcap and full of comedy.

Director, Daniel Evans, has assembled a talented cast that features Matt Rawle as the hero Billy Crocker, and Zoe Rainey as the girl he loves. Rainey gets to sing the charming but lesser known ballad, Goodbye, Little Dream.

Hugh Sachs, Alex Young and Stephen Matthews give excellent comic performances.

But the evening belongs to Debbie Kurup who delivers a firecracker of a performance as the brash, wisecracking cabaret entertainer, Reno Sweeney.

Her vocal and dancing skills are seen at their best when she leads the company in the title number and in Blow Gabriel Blow. Both reflect the quality of the dancers and Alistair David’s choreography which is full of invention, physicality and tap-dancing quirkiness.