When you think about it, the mood right now probably isn’t too far removed from what it was in the Thirties – unemployment, all-round economic hardship and politicians wilfully out of touch.

So it’s perfect that a show first created to lift the mood of a country in 1930s Depression-hit America should now be playing in Oxford.

42nd Street started life as a Busby Berkeley film in 1933 and became an instant hit; 80 years on it’s become one of the most successful Broadway musicals of all time.

And it’s easy to see why.

This really IS a show that packs a ‘Wow!’ factor – huge, sleek and a juggernaut of fun, it’s impossible to stop toes matching the beat of your heart. And when the stage curtain lifts, that means 0-90 in 3.3 seconds.

Swamped instantly by 25 dancers, tap-tap-tapping to some of musical theatres’ greatest hits (We’re In The Money, Keep Young and Beautiful, Lullaby of Broadway, Dames, About a Quarter to Nine and 42nd Street), this is a production that delivers on all fronts.

It’s fast, funny, jaw-dropping, tender, and staged with all the verve and style of a Gary Barlow-staged Jubilee concert (minus, thankfully, Chery Cole).

And in this particular instance, size does matter.

The sets and staging of each musical number are breathtaking, while the costume changes defy belief (indeed, I’d suggest a gleeful tinkering with the space-time continuum to achieve some of them).

Jessica Punch (in the lead role of Peggy Sawyer) and Rebecca Marks (as Anytime Annie) stand out.

They’re spirited, funny and sassy as hell.

And boy can they dance.

So in these tough economic times, is it worth the price of a ticket?

Or, put another way, do you desperately need to smile till it hurts?

Precisely...

Ten-fold. And then some.

l42nd Street continues at the New Theatre Oxford until tomorrow (with a matinee at 2.30pm). Call the box office on 0844 871 3020.