Died-in-the-wool Gilbert & Sullivan purists may stay away. Everyone else should rush to snap up tickets to this high octane show. In point of fact, it probably helps if you are familiar with the original Mikado – you will understand the context better and enjoy the guessing game it excites.

Hot Mikado has its origins in the late 1930s, when the jazz explosion was at its height. Chicago delivered a swing Mikado, New York countered with the Hot Mikado. Both did well, but the score disappeared. Come 1986, orchestrator Rob Bowman teamed up with lyricist David H Bell to reconstitute it. Numerous awards later, it reached the West End in 1995. It’s here to stay.

Martyn Knight’s supercharged new production takes us away from the Far East, a few Chinese lanterns aside. A permanent split-level art deco set by David Pumfrey and Sarah Jewell immediately – and splendidly – evokes the 1940s nightclub scene, with the Titipu Town Band on stage throughout.

Phil Redding’s seven-piece combo is excellently attuned to the period, pianist John Atkin deserving special mention for his chameleon styles. The band is joined by six backing singers, a nice period touch, and vital when the chorus is busy dancing.

For the knockout touch in this show is Knight’s choreography, in which Sue Hawksworth and dance captain Rachael Wilkinson have also played important roles. Jitterbug, tap-dance, jive, Charleston, lindy hop, you name it, they’re all here. The chorus is stunningly disciplined, seemingly able to deliver these styles in their sleep; I do not recall any show in York over the last 40 years so tautly danced. Hand-movements, too, are remarkably co-ordinated.

The zoot-suited, behatted “gentlemen of Japan” initially look like Al Capone’s spivvy sidekicks. They set the scene well, before the ladies appear in period wigs and costumes, conjured by Suzanne Ayers and Jean Wilkinson, which complete the thoroughly westernised picture. Thereafter we are more in the land of spoof than of mere imitation.

Richard Blackburn’s engagingly tireless Nanki-Poo, his trumpeting appropriately off-target, is partnered with charm and spontaneity by Lauren Charlton-Mathews as Yum-Yum. Alicia Stabler and Alexa Chaplin vividly complete the three little maids. Anthony Gardner fashions an eccentric, Ronnie Corbett-style Ko-Ko, a little over the top in Titwillow, but at his most amusing courting Katisha. She is vamped beautifully by Laura Meek, whose contralto promises even more.

Colin Sinclair’s Pooh-Bah sports an admirable range of accents and Michael Foster is a likeable Pish-Tush, if under-projected. Rory Mulvihill reprised his Herod from the 2012 Mystery Plays as a ‘cool’ Mikado and with equally hilarious results.

This glorious show is much more than just jazz: there are elements of hot gospel, rock, swing, blues, even torch songs in this eclectic brew. The full-on song-and-dance numbers will have you toe-tapping as never before. Clear your diary and go. You’d be crazy to miss it.