Fifty years since its first performance but still as fresh as a daisy, Chicago hit The Alexandra with a vengeance on Monday night. Toe-tapping songs accompany riveting choreography to create an unforgettable spectacle. Who can fail to be enthralled by a show which features hit after compelling hit? All That Jazz, Cell Block Tango, When You’re Good To Mama and Razzle Dazzle; it is the score of this blockbuster musical that really steals the show.

In hot competition for the title of ‘show stealer’, though, are the sparkling performances...

Janette Manrara’s Roxie Hart will have been eagerly awaited by fans of Strictly, and they surely can’t have been disappointed. Proving that she is a genuine triple-threat (she can sing, she can dance, she can act …) Manrara’s performance is simply spellbinding. As Roxie she is the perfect mix of ruthless self-interest and sympathy-inducing beauty. We know she’s guilty of murder, but somehow she wins everybody round, including the audience.

Brenda Edwards is a beautifully forceful Mama Morton, manipulating those who turn to her for help and ruling the (prison) roost with an iron fist. In her own words, this “biggest mother hen” will look after those who look after her, and there can be no doubt who is really in charge.

Djalenga Scott captivates as Velma Kelly. With Scott centre stage in the opening number, the scene is set for a masterpiece of musical theatre. And from there, the show goes from strength to strength.

The plot might not look out of place in today’s headlines. When her lover, Fred (Josh Crowther), threatens to leave, Roxie decides that the only option is murder. Once arrested, and desperate to avoid being found guilty of her crime, she engages the most slippery of Chicago’s lawyers, Billy Flynn (the superb Dan Burton), to defend her. From here, a series of dubious manipulations of the truth - the kind which would make any modern-day social-media schemer proud - result in Roxie’s ultimate acquittal, at which point she is well placed for a new high-profile celebrity career.

Velma realises that a partnership with Roxie is her passport to success and so buries their hostility for her own ends.

Billy Flynn proves that, despite his protestations to the contrary, his only motivation is money (as we knew all along).

Greed, ambition, corruption… The ruthless fame- and power-hungry characters will stop at nothing to attract the attention they crave...

The action unfurls amidst the jazz-fuelled decadence and glamour of 1920s Chicago, and a more fitting backdrop there could not be. The simple, dark set, with its flashes of opulence and its onstage band, is a stroke of genius, providing ideal surroundings for the show’s dark deeds and even darker characters. The choreography is superlative, the performances glittering; the whole production is a triumph.

Slick your hair and wear your buckle shoes - the razzle-dazzle truly has arrived!

Five stars

Chicago was reviewed by Rachel Smith on Monday 14 April at Birmingham’s The Alexandra, where it shows until Saturday 19 April. It then returns to the Midlands to play Wolverhampton Grand from Monday 13 - Saturday 28 June.