Rain steals the show in this classic musical currently being staged in SA, writes Lin Sampson I took a seven-year-old to see Singin' in the Rain - a three-hour show. Yep, it was risky. But she did not take her eyes off the stage as this brilliantly lit mega-musical, tight as a drum, held us wicked fast.The fizz of good musicals is to marry the storyline with the dancing; they can easily look like song and dance routines with the plot as a side dish. Fred Astaire famously said: "I don't want people singing AT me.""You say as much as you can and when you can't say more you sing, and when you can't sing you dance," says dance captain Duane Alexander, who keeps the rigours of the original choreography by Briton Andrew Wright.story_article_left1The star of the show is the rain. It splashed and washed, was kicked up, puddled and sprayed. The audience in the front row were issued with raincoats. The solo of the title song sung by Don Hopwood (Grant Almirall) was heroic as he dipped and twirled. The umbrella is a versatile prop and technology serves this production well. This was no drizzle.Tap, the Svengali of dance with its loose-jointed soft shim-sham, its digs and chucks and pick-ups, cracked the production along like a clattering train. Although it was a grungier, more street tap than the smoothness of Fred Astaire, it fitted the period even better.The cast, many triple threats (the rare performer who can dance, act and sing), was slick as slot machines, and the whole was underscored by the masteries of hidden control, imaginative segueing and a cocktail tray of delicacies.Lockwood and his mate Cosmo Brown (played brilliantly by Steven van Wyk) are one example with their stupefyingly inventive tapping and hoofing through versatile sequences, sometimes in silk stripe pajamas, sometimes in suits; playing on words, comedic, acrobatic and cutely absurd. I'd single out as a favourite the Moses Supposes routine in which, with the excellent Kenneth Meyer, they struggled with the vagaries of English.Lina Lamont (played by Taryn-Lee Hudson) with her squeaky voice emphasised the horror that lay behind silent movies when she was asked to speak. I found it gruelling but the seven-year-old doubled up with laughter and declared it her favourite.The storyline, deeper than it looks, takes place around the onerous transition of silent movies to talkies. It has the razzle of the '20s, which was the first generation to emphasise youthful culture; the war had taught them that life was not forever.This is not reheated Singin' in the Rain, it is brazenly new, styled with Roaring Twenties panache, gleaming with the strip lighting of the era and the soft power of women on the verge of emancipation. The subject matter could be grim if treated in a Sunset Boulevard manner, but watching people trying to produce the first talkie movie makes for extreme comedy, if only one of errors.I loved the all-girl ensembles, sometimes dressed in silky peach-coloured lingerie, sometimes perched on the silver side of an aeroplane wing. Mila de Biaggi deserves special mention.The production is what is known as a cookie cutter, lifted from a UK production, but with an all-local cast. It is put together with speed and the guidance of a team of the original creatives who flew from the UK to help.story_article_right2"It can be frustrating to actors," says resident director Anton Luitingh, "but it works." These international shows have done a lot for live theatre in poorer countries because they are massively expensive and touring allows for costs to be divvied up between countries.Singin' in the Rain is classic post-war entertainment, designed to make everyone feel better, celebrating love and the human spirit. Musicals, especially old American shows like Gypsy, have become swashbucklers of the theatre world; luckily the musical theatre schools in South Africa are chock-a-block with talent.As we left, people old and young were taking selfies, humming the old real-heart songs like Good Morning and All I Do Is Dream of You.It is a rare show that can hold the attention of both a 70-year-old and a seven-year-old.'Singin' in the Rain' is on at Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg until March 13 2016...