FOR the funniest night you will spend watching a musical look no further than The Mayflower this week!

Unashamedly irreverent in its destruction of political correctness The Producers ridicules Swedes, accountants, old people, actors, gays, lesbians, Nazi’s – and Hitler.

But the heady mix of satire, farce and musical theatre adds up to an evening of unadulterated, riotous fun!

The show is based on Mel Brooks’ Academy Award winning movie and tells the story of New York producer Max Bialystock (Cory English) who recruits the timid accountant Leo Bloom ( Jason Manford) to help him pull off Broadway’s greatest scam.

In their bid to stage a huge musical flop and run off with the box office takings, they accidentally pull off a hit - the unlikely ‘Springtime for Hitler.’

Jason Manford’s superb comic portrayal of a nervous, comfort-blanket-clutching, naive and gullible Bloom is utterly believable; he sings beautifully, whether belting out a showstopper or delivering a gentle melody and he dances with ease too.

Fellow comedian Ross Noble ( who has taken over from Phill Jupitus ) plays a brilliantly dark, bonkers and extremely funny former Nazi, pigeon fancier and script writer Franz Liebkind too.

However, it is the utterly enthralling Cory English as crooked producer Max Bialystock who holds centre stage from the start with an energetic, solid performance that glues everything together. He delivers a masterclass in characterisation, comic timing and physical comedy all tinged with pathos, from his saucy encounters with the sex-crazed aged backers to his prison scene rendition of ‘Betrayed’ where he re-enacts the entire show, intermission included, in a hyperactive précis delivered from a toilet!

Salisbury’s Tiffany Graves sparkles and sizzles as sexy Swede Ulla (‘for breakfast many herrings’), the object of Bloom’s affections and Bialystock’s lust. Her performance of ‘If you Got It, Flaunt It’ where she strips and then magically dresses and strips again without any obvious use of hands is brilliant.

Olivier award winning David Badella is sensational as flamboyant director Roger de Bris/gay Hitler.

Southampton’s Stephane Anelli, meanwhile, ( last here in Singin’ in the Rain ) has stepped into Louis Spence’s shoes to play a wonderfully camp director’s assistant Carmen Ghia.

In fact, every cast member works their socks off to deliver a dazzling, highly energetic and enthusiastic five star show.

The show’s systematic comic onslaught of all its stereotypes reaches its side-splitting climax as we finally watch ‘Springtime for Hitler’ starring a gloriously gay, spangled Führer backed by goose-stepping, tap dancing glittery Nazi soldiers and the funniest of costumes - one featuring a giant German sausage!Utterly brilliant!