Top Hat provides everything you want in a musical comedy, with spectacular song and dance numbers, more than 200 lavish costumes, elegant settings and a superb cast that captures the magic of the great 1935 movie.

Alan Burkitt and Charlotte Gooch may not be big names but prove they are mega talents in recreating the chemistry and dazzling routines of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as Broadway sensation Jerry Travers and society girl Dale Tremont.

Talented tapper Burkitt, high-kicking Gooch and their fellow hoofers do full justice to Irving Berlin’s show-stoppers Puttin’ On The Ritz, White Tie, Top Hat And Tails and Let’s Face The Music And Dance.

They are helped considerably by Bill Deamer’s choreography, Matthew White’s direction and Hildegard Bechtler’s designs which take us to the swankiest hotels in London and Venice.

Jerry’s efforts to woo Dale come unstuck when she mistakenly believes he is married to her friend Madge.

Rebecca Thornhill and Clive Hayward excel in humorous exchanges between Madge and her hen-pecked husband Horace. But the biggest laughs are provided by John Conroy, as Horace’s straight laced valet Bates, and Sebastien Torkia, as vain Italian fashion designer Alberto.

Funny though Conroy’s disguises are, they cannot match Torkia’s hilarious strip for his wedding night.

Five stars