IN the golden age of Hollywood boy meets girl, sings full throttle into her adoring face, they kiss, break into a dance routine and live happily ever after.
What utter bliss to see the concept is alive and well and touring the nation in
Singin' In The Rain, one of the most iconic and fondly remembered of Gene Kelly's musicals.
It was a sheer indulgence for dance fans to watch the show at
Milton Keynes Theatre this week. The show oozed glamour and pizzazz and featured some of the most ambitious tap routines ever created by the brilliant Kelly.
It was hard not to imagine we weren't back in an era which had pretty much said goodbye to the sophisticated grace of Fred Astaire and embraced the looser, jazzier style of Kelly.
The success of this latest outing for Singin' In The Rain is entirely down to its charismatic leading man.
Acclaimed hoofer Tim Flavin could have just stepped off the boat in Anchors Aweigh or substituted for Sinatra in On The Town. Quite simply he was born in the wrong decade.
The man had 1950s panache written right through him - from the heavily Brylcreemed hair which didn't move an inch through the most energetic of dances right down to his pearly white smile and two-tone patent leather tap shoes.
Dressed in a tuxedo and with a twinkle in his eye it's no wonder wannabe actress Kathy Seldon fell in love. Pretty much every woman in the audience did too.
Flavin, a familiar face in West End musicals, played Don Lockwood, a former song and dance man turned huge Hollywood star of silent movies in the 1920s (imagine Douglas Fairbanks). He swashes his buckle through one film after another accompanied by platinum blonde bombshell Lina Lamont.
But the public were suddenly offered Jolson in The Jazz Singer and, with the advent of talking pictures, could the award-winning partnership of Lockwood and Lamont survive the transition ?
Meanwhile the lantern-jawed American with the heart-throb looks meets and falls in love with Kathy Seldon who turns out to be the answer to everyone's prayers.
Jessica Punch, who made such an impact at Milton Keynes Theatre in 42nd Street, is again cast as the spunky street-wise girl who sings like an angel, dances like Ginger Rogers, and has personality by the bucket-load.
She was made for roles like these.
In the movie version Donald O'Connor, who played Lockwood's former vaudeville partner and best pal, Cosmo Brown, proved equal to the task during choreographer, Gene Kelly's inventive and highly physical dance routines. He also stole the spotlight as the film's comic.
In the stage show Graeme Henderson, as Cosmo, bears a striking resemblance to O'Connor. He is given a couple of moments to show his proficiency at tap but not nearly enough.
One of the biggest laughs of the night came when Brown and two film studio heads were trying to think of a new name for Lockwood's latest movie.
Just as Cosmo was about to suggest something a woman in the stalls sneezed heartily. It brought the house down, created a moment or two for the cast to ad lib and left the embarrassed victim wishing the ground had swallowed her up.
Of course the song that everyone wanted to hear was the title tune, danced by Don at the end of the first half on a rain-soaked stage.
Its reprise at the finale, with the cast sporting sensible technicolour Wellingtons in case they slipped, would have caused Gene Kelly, one of the most athletic dancers the world has ever seen, to turn in his grave.
But it satisfied the health and safety inspectors and the only problem on the night came from a mischievous umbrella belonging to one of the dancers.
With songs including All I Do, You Were Meant For Me, Good Morning, Broadway Melody and Lucky Star this was vintage Hollywood razzle dazzle.
They don't make them like that any more – and that's a tragedy.
*Singin' In The Rain runs until Saturday (May 23). For tickets call the box office 0844 871 7652 or go online www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes