FIRST came the 20th Anniversary version of Rent, now All Or Nothing, The Mod Musical, as York Theatre Royal embraces the modern musical in its programming for 2017.

Audiences have responded in good numbers, suggesting such shows may be a more familiar sight and sound from now on.

Billed as "the coolest musical ever" – not true, but there is nothing like self-confidence – All Or Nothing is the story of those "East End oiks" The Small Faces, who rose, fell, crashed and burned in a mad whirl from 1965 to 1969.

In Premier League terms, they are a West Ham, more than a Chelsea, perennially outside the top six, with the a cup win or two in them and some great players who went too early.

On the surface, they were not as obvious a choice as North Londoners The Kinks for a bio-musical, whose award-winning Sunny Afternoon show was such a hit at the Grand Opera House in February and had the direct involvement of Ray Davies in its creation.

The Kinks add up to more hits and better songs, but it turns out that their story, their trajectory, is not dissimilar to that of The Small Faces, or maybe it is just that the arc of Sixties' bands has a template of ambition, success at such a young age, management malpractice, band fall-outs, clashes with authority and frontman ego excesses. The Small Faces had it all; it's just that they crammed into such a short span of time. Truly a case of all or nothing.

To the Manor Park born, cocksure band leader Steve Marriot was brown bread at only 44 and so it not around to tell his tale, but writer, director, actress and Small Faces devotee Carol Harrison has done so for him in a warts-and-all portrait that is both a love song and a kitchen-sink Sixties drama.

Crucially, she constructs her musical around an omnipresent narrator, her fellow EastEnders alumnus Chris Simmons's "Older and Wiser" Steve Marriott from beyond the grave. He's an Artful Dodger, lord-love-a-duck Cockney geezer, but he's also a pesky irritant, self destructive and alienating, and Simmons is happy to go out on a limb to make him both lovable and unlovable, just as it should be, pulling no punches as he comments on his own reckless behaviour in younger days.

He was driven as much by jealousy as fiery talent as this former child actor booted too tall Jimmy Winston (Joseph Peters) from the band; argued with Ronnie Laine (Stanton Wright), Ian McLagan (Josh Maddison) and Kenny Jones (Stefan Edwards); scrapped with rip-off managers Don Arden (Russell Floyd) and Andrew Loog Oldham (Joseph Peters), and told a Top Of The Pops mandarin what he thought of him (leading to The Small Faces being the first band to be banned from the Beeb's show).

Samuel Pope's Young Steve Marriott interacts with him splendidly, the two of them jointly leading the show, Simmons a constant shadow, Pope leading the band, whose musical skills are a knockout for Itchycoo Park, Lazy Sunday Afternoon and Tin Soldier in particular. There is much humour too, with send-ups of David Jacobs, Tony Blackburn and Stanley Unwin, plus cameos for PP Arnold, Dusty Springfield, Cathy McGowan and Rod Stewart.

All Or Nothing, Rock'n'Roll Productions, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk