The one thing the music from these two Rodgers and Hart shows screams out for is dancing, yet all we got were a few moments of tap.

But what we did have, courtesy of the BBC Concert Orchestra, was some splendid music and some great singing from the likes of Tim Flavin, Bonnie Langford and Broadway diva Kim Criswell.

The idea of these performances, which you can hear on BBC Radio 3 on Boxing Day, was to celebrate the genius of Richard Rodgers, the master of the modern musical, who was born 100 years ago.

Rodgers and Hart dominated Broadway in the Thirties and Forties, turning out hit show after hit show. Rodgers went on to write The Sound Of Music and collaborate with Oscar Hammerstein III.

But his collaboration with Lorenz Hart left an inheritance of great American popular songs and, in Pal Joey and On Your Toes, you get them in spades.

Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered, I Could Write A Book, What Is A Man and There's A Small Hotel are classics.

And this one-off concert did them proud. Miss Langford's That Terrific Rainbow was raw energy and emotion that pinned you to the Dome's back wall.

Miss Criswell's version of Bewitched was stunning, too.

And to hear these great songs in context and backed by a full concert orchestra was a treat. Robert Ziegler conducted the orchestra with aplomb, warmth and humour.

Aided and abetted by Julia McKenzie's narration, this was a popular performance of great classics.

We can decry much of the American cultural conquest of Europe but we would be much poorer without the music of Richard Rodgers.