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During one of her glitzy, 100,000-spectator-strong extravaganzas, Barbra Streisand told her adoring fans that Frank Loesser's "Guys and Dolls" in the film version with Marlon Brando and Jean Siimmons had been for her in her teenage years, an iconic experience. And with this terrific production of a much-loved musical, which stands up there with "Oklahoma" and "Annie Get Your Gun" as one of the finest musicals ever to cross the international stage, you can see why Streisand spoke as she did.

Here is a show that bursts at the seams with fabulous showstoppers which light up the theatre and set the audience cheering. You get "Luck Be A Lady Tonight", "I've Never Been In Love Before" "Sit Down, You're Rockin' The Boat" and many more all of them given here with that incisive energy which a Loesser number demands and without which they falter.

But under Gordon Greenberg's intelligent direction nothing is of left to chance. The stage constantly fills with colour and action and the cast work away as though this is their last hour on earth.

I must confess that I entered the theatre with misgivings wondering if the production would get to the heart of this time-honoured blend of Loesser's music and lyrics and Abe Burrows delectable story of tough Bowery thugs and their hard-edged dolls who hope their lives will be redeemed by marriage when the good things in life, the nice things, will be wheeled out (Loesser with a satirical edge proposes Ovaltine and Readers' Digest)

Frankly, I need not have worried-practically everything here is in Mr. Greenberg's safe hands, the tunes zip along, no detail is overlooked and the dancing is strong and beautifully worked out by Carlos Acosta, formerly of the Cuban ballet and The Royal Ballet. I have a slight quibble however, since Miss Adelaide's big number, one of the best in the show,"Take Back Your Mink", is fussy and greatly overdone.

In the musical theatre less is more as Mr Greenberg knows well - here in a number overloaded with waving arms and flapping fur stoles, an over-egged pudding if you like, the old diktat could well have been applied.

However, none of the scenes seem long and frequently you wish they could go on longer, which may be because we are watching talented actors interpreting the work of two geniuses. In this context, you cannot take your eyes off Sophie Thompson's wonderful Miss Adelaide, a performance rich with comic values and yet with an underlying pathos, a condition you might expect from a woman who has waited 14 years to get Nathan Detroit (the excellent David Haig) to the altar. Ms Thompson is a mild sensation, and as she outlines the ups and downs of her frustrations you love her at the same time appreciating her pure theatrical power.

When Adelaide and Nathan sing: "Sue me, sue me, shoot bullets through me, I love you..." the sheer warmth is uplifting with the kind of unaffected lyricism that brings a lump to your throat.