Shakespeare never imagined a night like this

KWAME Kwei-Armah gets off to a flying start as the new artistic director of the Young Vic.

Shakespeare’s bittersweet tale of lovelorn aristocrats in Illyria is turned into a rhythm and blues musical, notionally set in the run-up to the Notting Hill carnival.

What’s most distinctive is the way the show involves people of all ages and colours from the community alongside professionals, so it feels rooted and real.

To make it fly, the Bard’s script is given major liposuction, to create a lithe 90-minute canter. Robert Jones’s design sets the tone with a criss-cross of Portobello Road terrace houses in primary colours, and a Tarmac catwalk that makes way for Lizzi Gee’s feisty choreography.

Shaina Taub’s songs schmooze the audience with delicious soul music. Gabrielle Brooks, as lovelorn go-between Viola, reminded me of Aretha Franklin, while Melissa Allan, as the fool Feste, channels Cyndi Lauper.

I did wonder if the hefty cuts might confuse the giddy tale of cross-dressing and mistaken love. Not a bit. Natalie Dew is deliciously warm as the haughty Countess Olivia, spurning Rupert Young’s lanky Notting Hill trustafarian, Duke Orsino.

The part of Sir Toby Belch is judiciously slashed, to allow man-mountain Martyn Ellis to play a more benign role, catalysing chaos as he makes out with Gbemisola Ikumelo’s hearty Nigerian maid.

And Gerard Carey is the best Malvolio I’ve ever seen. He has a ball, mincing about in monogrammed slippers and dressing gown, before floating disdainfully on an electric hoverboard.

If the show is rough round the edges, it’s all the better for being so and makes for joyful, broad-spectrum entertainment.