It's hard to get a musical like Annie wrong, but it's even harder to get it as vibrantly, enchantingly right as Keighley Amateurs do at Victoria Hall this week.

It's a wonderful production of a wonderful musical where everyone, from the leading little lady to the chorus members and musicians, shine like a set of Oxydent teeth.

Saffron Ingham is fantastic as orphan Annie, feistily charming and never annoying,  yearning to find her real parents.

Julian Freeman is a marvellous Warbucks, commanding but likeable as the billionaire who adopts Annie, and he nicely glosses over the more challenging moments of his songs.

The 14 orphans, individually very good and together terrific, perform one of the best Hard Knock Life routines I've ever seen then return for a rumbustious Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile.

The other principals are all spot-on, especially Fiona Spencer as a delightful Grace.

The orchestra led by John Sandland is marvellous, complementing the performers on stage but full of lovely moments of their own.

Annie doesn't have the most consistently tuneful score in the world - for every humdinger like Hard Knock Life or Maybe there's a lacklustre song like You Won't Be An Orphan - but director Andrew Walton clearly didn't accept that.

He and choreographer Judith Chapman turned almost every song into a highlight - through staging, singing, acting, movement, costuming, or more usually a blend of the lot.

Andrew extended this care to the show as a whole, keeping things moving with not one dull moment.

On the opening night there were only a couple of scenes that upset the excellence - parts of the NYC where the chorus were crammed together, and the climactic number Anything But You which was disappointingly underpowered.

But hey, who cares, the orphans are back and everyone's smiling!

Until Saturday, call 08456 252550 to book tickets.

David Knights