Once a year, around this time, a small miracle takes place. It has nothing to do with babies in stables and everything to do with the genius of a young director called Phil Willmott, who turns out a postage stamp-sized musical that regularly becomes the hottest family Christmas treat in town. After working his way in previous years through the obvious choices - The Sound of Music, The King and I - Willmott has recently taken to writing his own shows. This year is a highly original choice: Jules Verne's novel regarding the attempt of Victorian gentleman and adventurer Phileas Fogg to win a wager that he can circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. The audience is the outright winner here. If you don't leave the theatre beaming, your name is almostly certainly Scrooge.
Wilmott has set himself quite a task, not least because his hero is such an uptight prig and unreconstructed dinosaur of a man. But Willmott sends up Victorian values with some wit, and with the emphasis largely on the comic mishaps of Passepartout (a winning Timothy Mitchell) and with Rae Baker as the fiery Queen Aouda refusing to be relegated to mere love interest, the evening takes on a rumbustious energy that sees it past the winning line. Willmott himself even makes an appearance as the dastardly Captain Fix, who attempts to prevent our hero and his friends achieving their goal. Then, as now, the hardest part of the journey is not negotiating India or the wilds of America but getting from Liverpool to London, though it is the wiles of Captain Fix rather than the inefficiencies of the British transport system that are to blame.
Some of the ensemble are a little on the ropy side, and in a larger venue the piece's weaknesses would be magnified. But this is what it is: a pocket-sized musical that is loads of fun (just love the elephant, Eugene, who Passepartout wants to save from a career in Fringe theatre), full of spectacle (terrific Chinese lion) and has loads of tunes to make you tap your toes. A complete delight.
· Until Jan 12. Box office: 020-7223 2223.
