It’d be a crime to miss Chicago’s sass and wit at Sheffield's Lyceum Theatre

Brassy deceit, unabashed greed, sheer sexiness and bootleg booze ooze from every drawling slide of the orchestra’s trombone.

And conniving chorus girl turned cold hearted killer Roxie Hart is in desperate need of a lawyer.

This 25th anniversary international touring revival of Broadway’s longest-running musical still has all the razzle-dazzle it ever did. The musical itself is 47 years old this year (and the satirical play on which the show was originally based was written 96 years ago!) but, thanks to its period setting, jazz-sassy score, intricate plot and witty lyrics, it feels timeless.

Indeed some of its themes - fame-hungry celebrities, the salacious fickleness of the tabloids, a public fascination with female felony - seem as up to date as ever.

The starkly monochrome tiered set barely changes for the majority of the show, which leaves the music, choreography and, unusually, the band free to take centre stage. They’re front and centre, not down in the pit, which gives the large-scale staging the feel of an intimate jazz club where, as the song says, the gin is cold and the piano’s hot!

Coronation Street’s Faye Brookes plays Roxie, Lee Mead is her mercenary lawyer, and Loose Women’s Brenda Edwards should have been performing the role of Mama Morton on opening night at The Lyceum in Sheffield on Tuesday. Sadly Brenda slipped on a night out in Blackpool on Saturday and broke her fibula, and understudy Michelle Andrews took on her part with punchy panache.

Roxie has some great bittersweet lines - “I’m older than I ever intended to be”, and “Screwing around is fooling around, without dinner” - and Brookes is funny, feisty and a fine femme fatale.

But it’s her partner in crime Velma Kelly, not just played but inhabited by Djalenga Scott, who absolutely steals the show. She is incredible.

The favourite showtunes - All That Jazz, Razzle Dazzle, When You’re Good to Momma, Cell Block Tango (He Had it Comin’) - come one after another as fast as the bullets from Roxie’s gun.

But the less familiar songs, especially the duets between Djalenga and her co-stars (Class, with Mama Morton, and My Own Best Friend with Roxie) are also among the most memorable - along with the eye-watering high-kicks and splits from a ensemble of fiercely talented dancers and singers in support.

Chicago runs at The Lyceum until Saturday. It would be a crime to miss it.