Give 'em the old razzle-dazzle suggests the song, and there is certainly no shortage of sparkle at the Millennium Centre where Chicago is currently playing.

Set against a backdrop of 1920s, jazz-age Chicago, gangsters and molls tell the story of two women accused of murder.

Slightly sleazy and totally watchable the story, set in a women's prison, is one of the few stories in which the bad girls don't get their come-uppance. Instead Roxy Hart (Emma Barton) and Velma Kelly (Twinnie-Lee Moore) add glamour and panache to this courtroom drama-with-a-twist.

Stunning choreography, performed by a simply magnificent cast and a score that delighted the production is, in every way, superior to the film.

Surprisingly, though, Marti Pellow, reprising his West End role as Billy Flynn, was short on charisma - a kind of Billy Flynn-lite, although, to be fair, almost all the women in the audience seemed to disagree with me.

In contrast Barton's Roxy - a million miles from the saccharine Honey from Eastenders - was a triumph. Two parts sex-kitten to one ruthless killer she commanded the stage and provided the perfect foil for the magnificent Moore as Velma.

Adam Stafford, Roxy's poor sap of a husband Amos, gave a performance of such subtlety and dignity that it had the audience cheering and there was great support, too from Wendy Lee Purdy as Mama - although she sometimes underplayed the sinister side of the prison matron.

A great touch was the use of musical director Garth Hall as the device to move the action along and it was good to see the orchestra perform as part of the on-stage cast, rather than being hidden away as usual.

Chicago is playing until January 23rd.