MY FAIR LADY The Alhambra They call it the greatest musical ever written and last night Sir Cameron Mackintosh's fabulous team showed us why.

This sparkling production of My Fair Lady, in Bradford for a month, was a joy to watch from start to finish.

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's much-loved show about linguistics professor Henry Higgins and his protege, Cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle, has been updated with terrific rounded performances, cracking dance numbers and stunning sets.

Designer Anthony Ward's striking sets captured both the stylish Cecil Beaton look of Edwardian London's society circles and the grubbiness of its Cockney underclass.

The famous Ascot scene, a beautiful moving collage of chic black mourning attire, was breathtaking. And Higgins' study, complete with more than 400 books, was quite a set.

The lively choreography is full of Matthew Bourne's distinctive wit and warmth, particularly the glorious With A Little Bit of Luck routine which had the cast bashing dustbin lids and washboards, and The Rain in Spain, a joyful whirlwind of a scene when Eliza has finally, in the words of Professor Higgins, "got it".

There were some lovely touches throughout, notably the "Greek chorus" of Higgins' house servants.

It may be a musical, but there's nothing twee or schmaltzy about this show, which leans strongly on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. Higgins' dismissal of Eliza as just a social experiment is quite shocking - "it's almost irresistible, she's so deliciously low" he says when challenged to turn her into a lady with a cut-glass accent - and it's thanks to a stellar cast that the principal characters are so convincing.

Amy Nuttall was a delight as Eliza. Her transformation from quick-tempered Cockney to "a Duchess fit for the Embassy Ball" was both funny and moving and she sang like an angel, delivering songs like I Could Have Danced All Night and Wouldn't It Be Loverly? with the grace of an accomplished classical singer.

Christopher Cazenove was a superb Higgins, grouchy but endearing. His rendition of I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face was sheer class.

Gareth Hale was marvellous as Alfred P Doolittle, full of Cockney charm and lighting up the stage with the rip-roaring Get Me To The Church On Time routine.

And Stephen Moore was a delightfully comic Colonel Pickering.

This show manages to be funny, stylish, feelgood, thought-provoking and bursting with energy. A package not to be missed.

Runs until April 29.