So, so silly but so divine

The Boyfriend
Open Air Theatre, Regents Park
*****

How ludicrous. And how wonderful. The Open Air Theatre's delicious production of Sandy Wilson's homage to the Twenties is a no-brainer, a gorgeous fantasy that demands you suspend meaningful thought while your heart claps along to its syncopated rhythms.

The young flappers of Mme Dubonnet's school for ladies in Nice are all paired up for the Carnival Ball, except poor Polly Browne. Then Polly meets an impoverished delivery boy who might not be all that he seems and the plot swings into action, only to be happily resolved before any real problem has been encountered.

But the silliness of the onstage world, packed as it is with young men in boaters and young women with a habit of talking in unison, is never made the main joke. The cast pepper their performances with selfawareness while its nastier cousin, irony, remains absent. Wilson's songs ring out with the simple freshness of the breeze you currently wish would come through your window at nights.

Rachel Jerram as Polly and Joshua Dallas as her beau, Tony, are sweet and endearing. But it's the secondary romances that carry the day. Summer Strallen, as the flirt Maisie has the worldly yet proper enthusiasm of a girl who plans to relish each tiny step on the way to her wedding night.

Steven Pacey as Polly's dad is a delightfully subtle prude, his English reserve gently melting in the heat of the Riviera.

The outdoor setting also helps, but in past years, the unique ambience of the OAT musicals has been let down by a lack of polish. No such problem here. The dancing is great, the arrangements bright and clear, and to maximise the pleasure of being out in the summer evening, the theatre emulates the opera with not one but two very civilised intervals. A divine evening.

Until September 9 (08700 601811)