LUCK may be a lady tonight, but more by design than luck Paul Laidlaw's production lives up to his pre-show prediction.

The omens were good, he said, because he was working with a better theatre, better cast and better designer than that for his first version of Guys And Dolls in York 15 years ago.

York Musical Theatre Company has pulled out the stops for Frank Loesser's Broadway musical, utilising a new design by Oldham designer Dave Benson. Here the Manhattan skyline, and later the Save-A-Soul Mission Hall and Hot Box Club, drop into place from above, on plates of glass that facilitate swift scene changes.

Costume designer Wayne Martin, Dress Circle and Costume House add to the stylised fantasy look of Laidlaw's show, eschewing dark suits for suitably larger-than-life colours and gangster stripes to make a packet of Liquorice Allsorts jealous. Martin excels with his feathers and mink stoles, and Laidlaw's swish choreography has those feathers wittily opening like a flower in the sun to reveal the Hot Box Girls in all their leggy glamour in Miss Adelaide's opening number, A Bushel And A Peck.

Laidlaw's casting is a joy for the two sets of lovers in Damon Runyon's risqu yarn. Richard Bainbridge is amusingly evasive as compulsive crap-game operator Nathan Detroit, nervously slipping the attentions of both police officer Lieutenant Brannigan (John Gentry) and Hot Club leading dancer Miss Adelaide, 14 years his fiance. Toni Feetenby, frankly far too good for amateur theatre but staying faithful to the York circuit nevertheless, is wonderful once more as Miss Adelaide, shrill Bronx accent, comic timing and all.

Where Bainbridge and Feetenby are tongue-in-cheek, John Haigh's handsome, high-rolling Sky Masterson and Jessa Liversidge's sweet-singing Mission doll Miss Sarah Brown are the straight counter, tender on eye and soul alike. All around them buzz the gangster likes of Mick Liversidge's Nicely-Nicely (sometimes a little too quietly-quietly), Sam Coulson's young pup, Benny, and Gary Firth's forthright Big Jule.

The ensemble peaks with the slick chair moves of Sit Down You're Rockin' The Boat, an effervescent high point of a show as intoxicating as the Bacardi concoctions Sky Masterson orders in Havana.

Updated: 10:57 Thursday, April 28, 2005