Strictly Ballroom (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds)

Verdict: A ballroom blast

Baz LUHRMANN’S 1992 hit film about ballroom dancing Down Under has proved surprisingly difficult to remake as a stage musical. That’s all changed with Drew Mconie’s fizzing new production.

The best things about it are Sam Lips and Gemma Sutton as the two fleet-footed lovebirds, Scott and Fran. Lips is a muscular hunk, and if his acting is a bit stiff, let’s just say that Mr Lips has it in the hips department. Sutton is appealingly sweet as the outsider Fran.

Tamsin Carroll, as Scott’s mum, is a fearsome harridan in pink fluffy slippers, while Julius D’Silva, as the leering dance school owner, is like Barry Humphries’s Les Patterson.

Fernando Mira as Fran’s gravelvoiced Spanish father brings the house down with a paso doble performed like a prize bull.

There are a couple of good songs, but none compete with the big three from the film: Perhaps, Time After Time and, gloriously, Love Is In The Air. With those alone, the show should waltz through Christmas.