MORE fun than you can shake a chopstick at? How else would you describe a show where jazz, tap and Gilbert and Sullivan collide head-on.

East certainly meets West big style in Hot Mikado, a sizzler of a show that simply stuns audiences.

Hardly surprising when you see what musical theatre has done to that most traditional of musical forms, the much-loved G and S.

Because while Huddersfield Light Opera Company might be offering you a Mikado, it isn’t that one. This version is what it says on the box. Hot.

The company’s Hot Mikado opens in the main house of the Lawrence Batley Theatre on April 23.

Expect an all all-singing, all-dancing take on a story many will know from G and S. But with a difference.

The original Hot Mikado goes back to the Thirties when showman Mike Todd put together a cast of over a 100 African-American actors, including the famed tapper Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and jazzed up the G and S favourite.

Surprise, surprise. It went down a storm.

In the Nineties, when David H Bell, boss of Ford’s Theatre in Washington decide to revive it he couldn’t find script and score from the 1939 production.

So he and collaborator Rob Bowman adapted the original themselves and that’s what’s usually staged these days.

What you’ll get at the LBT is a jazzy dance musical which tells the story of Nanki-Poo, so the story is OK so far.

Then comes the funky bit.

This Nanki-Poo is a trumpet player in a travelling swing orchestra, and the audience travels with him as tries to win the affections of Yum-Yum – a “doo-wah” singer.

His efforts are hindered (well, they would be wouldn’t they?) as he tries to escape the attentions of someone else altogether. Those of Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, not forgetting the sultry torch singer Katisha.

So think Thirties and Forties which means bags of style, plenty of fancy footwork and the tempo is, as we’ve said, hot.

The company has brought in a fistful of talent. Hardly surprising that there are plenty of performers keen to get in on this particular act.

Pam Strickland is just the director/choreographer to get the fizz out of this show and what a cast she’s got.

Dom Moccia, one of the areas fast-rising young acting talents, is Nanki Poo with Laura Crowther making a welcome return to play opposite him as Yum Yum.

Laura was a well established performer in the area before she took off for London and a post-graduate degree at the Royal Academy of Music.

“I did my music degree in Huddersfield before going to London to study musical theatre,” she said.

Laura’s hit some pretty illustrious notes while she was based in London singing twice at the Royal Albert Hall but she’s now back in Huddersfield and delighted to be rejoining the Light after an absence of six years.

“I was a bit anxious at first but it’s been great. They’ve made me very welcome.”

Elsewhere in the cast, expect plenty of laughs whenever you see Paul Bennett, guaranteed to take the Mikado out of one and all as Ko Ko.

Elsewhere there are lots of names you will recognise which means plenty of experience, energy and talent.

And this show has mega-watt power levels so they’ll be needed.

Steve Redfern is The Mikado, with Louisa Lefevre as Pitti-Sing , Zoe Clarkson as Peep-Bo Zoe, Chris Comber as Pish-Tush, Richard Brook as Pooh-Bah Richard Brook and Sharon Whitehead as Katisha.

The show’s producer is Steve Tetlow, assistant choreographer is Zoe Cook, the musical director is Caroline Kelly and Emma Binns has been the rehearsal pianist .

Performances run every evening from April 23-27 at 7.15pm and there is a Saturday matinee at 2.15pm.

Tickets from the box office on 01484 430528.