THOROUGHLY Modern Millie isn't thoroughly modern at all, in fact it's thoroughly old-fashioned but that's a good thing, just as it is in Strictly Come Dancing's celebration of dance steps down the years.

Strictly is this touring show's selling point too in the form of Joanne Clifton, the 2016 champion in her partnership with BBC Sport presenter Ore Oduba, and before you scoff that "she only got the part because she won Strictly", please give both the producers and Joanne herself more credit than that.

Pop star Pixie Lott transferred less comfortably to the straight drama of Breakfast At Tiffany's on tour at Leeds Grand Theatre last year, but Joanne Clifton takes to Broadway musical theatre with all the chutzpah she already brings to her dancing.

She has been taking private lessons for three years in singing and acting and played Marilyn Monroe in Norma Jeane, The Musical before landing the role of Millie Dillmount, the Kansas girl determined to make it big in 1922 Jazz Age New York City, just as Joanne had left Grimsby for Italy at 16 in her drive to become a champion ballroom dancer.

She has the foundation of dazzling dance skills on which to build her performance, but more important here is her ability to sing, to bring both drama and humour to her acting and to pull off an American accent, not to mention to lead a show, and she does all these with aplomb. Sometimes, the acting feels a little too choreographed, too precise, rather than instinctive, but the more Joanne performs, the more freely she will do so.

Crucially too, she has a natural feel for comedy; her Act Two-opening song-and-dance, Forget About The Boy, is fab-u-lous, and she is bursting with energy to the final curtain. She's fun to watch, full stop.

She is a team player too in a show that spreads the spotlight across a good handful of principal players, one of whose roles had been specially adapted for Lucas Rush, who has joined the tour from this week after Michelle Collins played Mrs Meers for the first six weeks.

Yes, you read that right, a man has replaced a woman. Mrs Meers, rubbery Chinese accent and all, runs the hotel where Millie is the latest new girl with big dreams in her head and no money in her pocket, but there is more to Mrs Meers than first meets the eye, and Rush lets the masquerade slip superbly. Cometh the Rush hour, cometh the man/woman who has immediately given the show an extra gear.

Sam Barrett's Jimmy Smith and Katherine Glover's Miss Dorothy Brown add to the madcap merriment, as do the support players and ensemble, but two performances in particular assist Joanne Clifton in lifting Racky Plews's production to the heights. Jenny Fitzpatrick's Muzzy Van Hossmere wins the first-half singing honours with her gorgeous rendition of Only In New York and Graham MacDuff, as Millie's boss Mr Trevor Graydon, delivers comedy gold in the loose-limbed grip of being sozzled. Acting drunk is one of theatre's most difficult challenges but MacDuff gives a masterclass.

Thoroughly Modern Millie is thoroughly funny, entertaining, romantic, even thoroughly but delightfully silly: a glittering success to match its Twenties' flapper dresses.

Thoroughly Modern Millie, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york