Showing @ Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 18 Oct @ times vary (then touring)

Graham Greene once called Fred Astaire ‘Mickey Mouse in human form’. And Top Hat, the dizzying 1935 movie that perhaps best showcased Astaire’s impeccable dancing, was catnip to Depression-era cinema audiences who thrilled to the cocktail-sipping, foxtrotting society swells on the screen. The film – in gorgeous shiny-floored black-and-white – and the absurdly make-believe world it depicted is now the stuff of high camp and pie-in-the-sky nostalgia. Both of which are unapologetically front and centre in this Olivier award-winning West End hit. It is clever enough to reinvent the movie in the musical theatre mould of the likes of Anything Goes, although it shares nothing of Cole Porter’s outrageously witty lyrics and some of the one-liners are too lame for words: ‘Unlucky? I went to a funeral last week and caught the bouquet!’

For Strictly fans there is plenty to enjoy. The clunky plot of mistaken identity may be as slender as Ginger Roger’s anklestrap, but well-known Irving Berlin tunes like ‘Cheek to Cheek’, ‘Top Hat, White Tie and Tails’ and ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance‘ are imperviously upbeat. While the Latin lover number won’t pass unnoticed by the political correctness police, the costume and opulent deco set changes will have everyone cheering. For some frantically enjoyable escapism, Top Hat really can’t be beaten.

Back in Hollywood in the 1930s, the dancers were drilled to exhaustion and the seemingly effortless moves on the screen were the result of weeks of relentless rehearsal. On stage there is no chance of a second take and there are few missteps with leads and chorus in fine tap-dancing fettle. Matthew White’s precision direction is an exercise in mega-logistics worthy of FedEx. Bill Deamer’s choreography is faultless, and while Charlotte Gooch and Alan Burkitt may not quite have the same strange sexual chemistry as Rogers and Astaire, they equip themselves with so much period flair and self-assuredness that it really doesn’t matter. To coin a phrase, they do make ’em like this anymore.