AMATEUR productions aside, a little surprisingly this is the first professional revival since its initial, Tommy Steele-led explosion on the scene in the 1960s for David Heneker's musical based on HG Wells' Kipps.
Forget it was a massively successful vehicle for Steele and you will not be disappointed.
Forget, too, that the main protagonist is supposedly a 20-something-year-old because Gary Wilmot's performance renders the generation gap irrelevant homing i
n, as he does, below the age radar.
Some will say Sixpence (book by Beverley Cross) is dated, but it is pure escapism and while Heneker didn't exactly shake the foundations of originality, he was a skilful purveyor of lyrics and music.
The show has been 'modified' by Warner Brown, extremely well without fundamentally altering it.
He's tinkered with the book to cleverly accommodate a more mature Kipps, got more readily emotional content into it and added eight new numbers (amending others) to give other characters more to do.
As Brown is indicated only as lyricist for the additions, it must be assumed the music is Heneker's drawn from his other shows of more than passing interest. Whatever their origins, they fit in seamlessly.
One, for Kipps, What Should I Feel? is a real showstopper in 'This Nearly Was Mine' (South Pacific)-vein which Tommy Steele could never have remotely managed but the multi-talented Wilmot renders superbly.
Let's be honest, it's Gary Wilmot's show, as indeed it was Tommy Steele's. Without Wilmot, who is on top form throughout, it would probably still be on a backburner.
Standouts in the excellent cast around him are Claire Marlowe's humble but resolute Ann with a bell-like singing voice and David Delve's over-the-top Chitterlow.
Half a Sixpence still has Flash, Bang, Wallop!
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