THE scene everyone knows from Singin’ In The Rain is Gene Kelly splashing around in a deluge, light stepping it with an umbrella.

It’s the song that closes the first act in the stage show – well, the crew need the interval to dry the stage. Stepping into the maestro’s shoes as fictional film star Don Lockwood, James Leece does the role proud. He’s tall, graceful and nimble, and he can sing.

The story, by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed, is set is 1927 when silent movies were being overtaken by ‘talkies’. The fiction reflects the reality of the age. Many of the popular silent movie stars were found wanting in the voice department by the merciless microphones.

So it is with Lockwood’s co-star, Lina Lamont. Her glamour is skin deep, and Vicky Binns gives her the voice of a corncrake with a ‘Nu Joisey’ accent to make a native New Yorker wince, and the manners of an alley cat. Ms Binns’ out-of-tune singing, as Lina, is hilarious. It is very hard to sing deliberately off key and she does it convincingly.

Amy Ellen Richardson plays Kathy Selden, Lockwood’s real love interest, despite Lina believing the studio hype of a romance between her and her co-star.

There was excellent chemistry between Ms Richardson and Leece, in voice and footwork.

The character who undoubtedly most endeared himself to the audience was Cosmo Brown, Don’s best friend, played by Stephane Anelli. Anelli is a natural comic in face, voice and body language. His movements are quicksilver and his timing perfect.

It’s a slick production, fast flowing and with plenty of joie de vivre. You’ll leave singing, if not dancing.

Oh, and if you chose to sit in the front of the stalls, you risk a soaking when the whole cast sings and dances, in the rain, with considerable gusto, for the finale.