According to the blurb on The Old Market website, Kaleidoshow has a little bit of everything.

“Kaleidoshow is a vaudelicious mishmash of theatre, music, dance, gags and booze, with sensational live performances and all the action unfolding around you.”

To some it might sound like chaos. But its director Jo McInnes – who has done a flurry of plays for London’s Royal Court Theatre and oversaw Marine Parade in Brighton Festival 2010 as well as Animal Nights in Brighton Fringe 2009 – says any chaos will be in-hand and fun.

“It certainly won’t feel like things are falling apart around you.”

She explains, because it’s not cabaret, everything will be seamless.

“Basically, you can have a piece of theatre that runs straight into a band, and the story we weave through takes you on a journey of entertainment.”

The idea is that the audience are active members in the production.

“It’s not up on a stage. It’s in and around you. It’s cabaret-style seating.

"When you walk in, the whole space will be designed. We are going to create our own world: a sexy, seedy club feel. The show happens behind you, in front of you, right next to you. The story weaves right through the night.”

One of McInnes’s aims is to make accessible theatre.

“Theatre is often a big boundary for some people to cross. This is an idea we had to get a different audience into theatre and to make it feel that it wasn’t this dull boring thing and it can be really fun and extraordinary. Art can be entertaining; it doesn’t have to be dry.”

The starting point was Animal Nights, which originally ran for three nights at The Brunswick, in Hove. That show had a band playing, as a piece of theatre ran through the night.

Yes/No Productions, The Old Market’s new owners, saw those shows and wanted to bring the team to their new venue to do a run of shows before Christmas.

“This is a much bigger show. It cracks into DJs at the end for a big finale and people can even have a boogie.”

James Lance, who played Ben in the first I’m Alan Partridge series and was in Smack The Pony and Spaced, penned the show McInnes says is an odyssey.

“It’s a story about a man travelling through the universe, so it’s fantastical.

"He’s a Hollywood star who is on a journey of a lifetime. He meets a horse, he meets an owl and he meets a sage, who is played by Lee Ross, who was in The Catherine Tate Show and comes from a comedy background.

“Basically, this man just can’t feel his own heart. He has become so famous he’s lost touch with who he is. We see him go through this great transformation, but it’s comedy. I’d compare it to something like The Mighty Boosh. There is definitely a semblance of the surreal. It’s about how we’ve all got sucked into the cult of celebrity.”

Lance and Ross, who is also the singer in the house band, lead a 20-strong cast of performers. And because the roles are so varied, casting was about finding people of many talents.

“I wanted people with two or three extraordinary talents. I wanted multiskilled generous performers who spoke from their heart. That’s the difference for me. When Antonio Grove dances, you feel moved by what she does.”

Bunty Looping, the Brighton-based musician who creates a full-band sound through looping effects, and young playwright Hayley Squires, who featured in the Royal Court Young Writers Festival and has written a piece for the show she stars in, are also in the show.

“It’s called Kaleidoshow because we wanted to make a show in the good old-fashioned sense of the word, where you felt you had been moved, surprised, shocked, and all the performers have been extremely generous to you.

“It’s that generosity I often miss when I go to see things. That’s what we’ve come together to give.”

*Kaleidoshow is at The Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove, Dec 15 to Dec 17, 8pm, £12 adv/£13.50, call 01273 709709.