‘ANYONE who had a Heart’ – to quote Cilla Black’s No1 hit, could not fail to be touched by this delightful show.

It takes us straight back to the days of the Mersey Sound and Liverpool’s famous Cavern Club to tell the story of Cilla White’s rise to fame from typist to 60’s superstar managed by the legendary Brian Epstein.

And with the sensational Kara Lily Hayworth in the starring role it is as if the young Cilla is right back on stage: she is the shining star of this show.

She had big shoes to fill, given that the show was written by Jeff Pope following the success of his TV series Cilla starring Sheridan Smith, but she did this and more with convincing acting and vocal performances that were just breath-taking.

The first half of the show moves along at a jolly pace with songs from the era supplementing Cilla’s, all driving the narrative forward. T

he highlights are undoubtedly her two number one hits of 1964: Anyone who Had a Heart and You're My World.

But later there are other showstoppers such as Step Inside Love, Alfie and Something tells Me.

Alongside this are nostalgic covers such as ‘Summertime’ and ‘Dancing in the Streets’ and various feel-good tracks from The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers and The mamas and the Papas.

The second half sees the lives of Cilla, Bobby and Epstein all taking a rocky road, from conflicts over management and song choices to the tragic death of Epstein just as he was trying to coax Cilla into a TV presenting career.

Then as life gets back on track the story ends in 1967 and the finale is a musical medley that had the entire audience up on their collective feet dancing and singing along.

For those of us that grew up knowing the older Cilla, the TV icon of shows like Blind Date and Surprise Surprise, it does feel somewhat ungenerous not to recognise her extraordinary longevity in this field before her untimely death in 2015.

The show covers such a short time-span in her career that it also fails to portray the devotion Cilla felt towards Bobby over her lifetime until his devastating death in 1999.

Nor, indeed, does it make any reference to their three sons or their baby daughter who died shortly after birth.

But this is generally a feel-good juke box musical that celebrates her early achievements at an extraordinary time in music history and it certainly proved fun.