YOU can’t stop the heat this mad summer, and you can't stop the beat either at the Grand Opera House where Hairspray, the feelbest of all the feelgood musicals, will be playing to big houses all week.

Marc Shaiman and Scott Whittman's Sixties pastiche songs and Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan's book have been performed previously in York by amateur and school companies, always well received and rightly so, and now comes Paul Kerryson's kaleidoscopically colourful touring production of this black-and-white and anything but grey anti-segregation story.

John Waters’ cult 1988 nostalgia spoof and the 2007 film remake with John Travolta both contribute to the huge popularity of this fabulously flamboyant, highly humorous and exuberantly energetic spin-off Broadway musical.

Now, Takis's glorious set and gaudy costume designs and Dick Straker's video designs would look at home in the West End, combining perfectly to be hi-tech yet early Sixties retro all at once, whether depicting Baltimore streets, the TV studio for The Corny Collins Show, the Turnblad and Pingleton homes or a prison cell that surely harks back to Elvis's Jailhouse Rock.

Hairspray is set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, where teen rebel Tracy Turnblad (indefatigable Rosie O'Hare ) is determined to prove “fat girls can dance”, taking on the segregation policy that excludes her like and the black community from appearing in the TV talent contest introduced by the slick Corny Collins (smoothly charming John Tsouras, with just the right amount of tongue in his cheek).

On one side of the divide are Tracy; outspoken, larger-than-life mum Edna Turnblad (Matt Rixon) and much shorter, doting dad Wilbur (Graham Macduff); geeky pocket dynamo best friend Penny Pingleton (Annalise Liard-Bailey); swagger-hipped black pupil Seaweed J Stubbs (Shak Gabbidon-Williams) and the sage Motormouth Maybelle (gospel-singing Brenda Edwards).

On the other side are the wannabe pageant queen, shrill spoilt-brat Amber (Gemma Lawson) and her bigoted mother, the TV show’s shrewish producer Velma Von Tussle (Lucinda Lawrence). Torn between needy pin-up girl Amber and boundary-breaking Tracy is the TV show’s Elvis-lite pretty boy, Link Larkin (Dan Partridge).

Kerryson's cast are a delight: O'Hare's Tracy is infectiously enthusiastic for life; Gabbidon-Williams's Seaweed moves and sings like Marvin Gaye; Partridge's Link has a lovely Sixties pop voice; Lawrence's Velma is suitably vile, and Edwards's Motormouth has the foundations shaking all over as she uses a night's oxygen supply to maximum effect in I Know Where I’ve Been.

Matt Rixon is no stranger to York stages and it comes as no surprise that his irrepressible, funny, warm and loving Edna should be a knockout. His duet of Timeless To Me with Macduff’s Wilbur combines the man-in-a-dress prowess of a Les Dawson with double-act improvisation that brought Monday's house down.

Big wigs, big dance numbers zestfully choreographed by Drew McOnie and superb individual performances combine for an unbeatable hit where not only can't you stop the beat but you can beat intolerance, bigotry and racism in this shameful Brexit age.

Hairspray, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york