Claire Armitstead

One could quibble with some of the selections: why so much from Gypsy and West Side Story when he only wrote the lyrics? The answer, of course, is to reel in very different generations of fans. That’s show business, a love of which animates the ensemble numbers, against a multi-dimensional design by Matt Kinley (set) and George Reeve (projection) and Warren Letton (lighting), which segues from New York skyline to Parisian waterside and miniature burlesque theatre. There are enough high points along the way to suggest that perhaps it is best enjoyed as a pointillist painting, “made of flecks of light and dark and parasols”.

For all the hilarious busyness, it’s a mark of the production’s intelligence that its two most shocking moments arise from the text itself. There’s an audible gasp as Tamora’s Moorish lover (owned by Kibong Tanji with a sexualised swagger) is dismissed to his face as “swart ... spotted, detested, and abominable”. A stunned silence greets the introduction of the mutilated Lavinia by her own uncle with the words “this was thy daughter”.