JUST like it says in the song, there was a smile on my face from curtain up to grand finale.

Singin' In The Rain is that sort of show, especially when the production is as slick and professional as this 2009 revival – a sure-fire splash hit.

Three days into the opening week of the tour, it wasn't picture perfect, but the odd dropped umbrella and noisy scene change hardly detracted from an evening of escape from the financial storm clouds overhead.

Shows like this were the staple diet of Hollywood's golden era before musicals grew muscles and started to take themselves seriously.

It is packed with catchy songs like Make 'Em Laugh, Lucky Star and You Were Meant For Me; sharp one-liners and some of the most inventive and witty choreography ever conceived.

It helps to have such a credible, interesting plot, based on fact. In the late '20s, when movies switched from silent to talkies, dozens of successful actors were suddenly thrown out of work because they didn't have the voice.

Just like the scheming villain of this piece, golden girl Lina Lamont, a role which gives Amy Griffiths the chance to go way over the top and get away with it. There were times when her shrieks got so close to top C I was worried my glasses would crack, but she did a brilliant job with her comedy number What's Wrong With Me.

The answer to Lina's dilemma is to dub her voice and wannabe actress Kathy Selden, excellently handled by Jessica Punch, is just the girl to do it.

Trouble brews between the two when Kathy falls for Lina's leading man Don Lockwood, the role created by Gene Kelly and envied by every song and dance man since.

American Tim Flavin, tall and handsome with a flashing Hollywood smile, sings, dances and acts the part with an easy, winning charm.

He shares exhausting tap routines like Moses Supposes with the marvellous Graeme Henderson as his sidekick Cosmo Brown, and when Amy joins them for Good Morning they even pull off that famous tipping sofa stunt.

But his finest moment came with the title song when Flavin delivered a faithful homage to Kelly's iconic wet shoe shuffle.

ANDY SMART