★★★★☆ The show, which is on tour from the West End, has no shortage of star talent to entertain us. Frances Barber is positively gleeful in her devious manipulation and blackmail of Sir Robert. Every swish of her costume, every pointed gesture, every hiss of defiance sets her out as a woman with an abundance of willpower, ambition and guile.

★★★★☆ DUSTY, The Dusty Springfield Musical, especially with Katherine Kingsley as its head, brings one of Britain’s greatest female vocalists back for a glorious but painful reprise – ‘There is a sadness there in my voice,’ Dusty once said. ‘I was born with it. Sort of melancholy. Comes with being Irish-Scottish. Melancholy and mad at the same time.’

★★★★☆ Given the obvious fun Gilbert had satirising the House of Lords and party politics at the turn of the 19th century, it begged the question of what he might he made of Brexit or Trump’s White House? If his other-worldly fairies could delicately lampoon the plodding peers of the upper chamber without inviting opprobrium from the ruling classes then, what fun they could be having now!

★★★★☆ There is much to enjoy in director and choreographer Racky Plew’s production: a typing pool rattles with syncopated rhythm; a dazzling ensemble in silver and black deco-inspired flapper dresses tap and Charleston their way while a sharp band delivers delicious sax and clarinet lines from the pit.