Bob Fosse’s career as a choreographer took off when he won an Oscar for the film version of Cabaret in 1972. That led him to collaborate with composer John Kander in the musical Chicago, which hit Broadway three years later and won him a Tony award.

It is Fosse’s highly-charged dance routines, so evocative of the 1920s and '30s, that really underlie the show’s success. Originally a stage play, its author, Maurine Dallas Watkins, based it on her experiences as a crime reporter in 1926, when it was something of a succès de scandale.

Fred Ebb’s book and lyrics tell of Roxie Hart, who is bored with her marriage, but who then kills her two-timing lover and tries to revel in the spotlight of criminal celebrity. Faced with a possible death sentence, she reluctantly turns to a shady lawyer, Billy Flynn, whose underhand tactics get her acquitted. Finally she teams up with another released murderer, Velma Kelly, to form a nightclub double-act.

The story is thin and there is little true characterisation, but Fosse rescues it. Charlestons, cakewalks and soft-shoe shuffles, all done in Fosse’s angular style, are brilliantly recreated by Ann Reinking and Gary Chryst, in this Scott Faris revival of Walter Bobbie’s original production (now well past 6,000 performances on Broadway).

The spirit of vaudeville is evoked by Adrian Kirk’s 10-piece-band angled up the rear of the stage, with various MCs introducing the numbers. Kander’s delightful orchestrations are cleverly touched in, but when the going gets hot - as in All That Jazz and Hot Honey Rag - the band is good and ready.

You are not going to come out of this show humming the tunes. Kander’s songs are more workmanlike than memorable and Ebb’s lyrics are rarely genuinely amusing. His most inspired scene is in the courtroom where the entire proceedings are wittily distilled and one man (Adam Salter) plays all six of the jury.

Not all the best songs go to the principals either. Listen to Jamie Baughan, as the jilted husband Amos, in Mister Cellophane, or the experienced Bernie Nolan’s Matron in When You’re Good To Mama.

Ali Bastian gives her Roxie plenty of vim, especially in Act 2, though she could be sassier. Equally vivacious as a dancer is Tupele Dorgu’s Velma, who sparkles but is not really a credible criminal. Stefan Booth is a suave if two-dimensional Billy. The chorus dancing is extremely polished. Definitely a show that enchants the eye more than the ear.

Chicago, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday. Performances: tonight until Thursday, 7.30pm; Friday and Saturday, 5pm and 8.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or atgtickets.com/york