Matthew Bourne is the king of the caricature.

His dancers are more like cartoon characters than ballerinas with edgy, exaggerated movements that make their personalities come alive on the stage.

Fascinated by the dark undertone of Prokofiev’s score of Cinderella, which was written during war time, Bourne cleverly weaved the classic story into a new tale of love in battered London during the Blitz.

Act two is breathtaking, set in the Cafe de Paris, site of the famous bombing that lead to the loss of many performers and party-goers’ lives.

It started with a huge explosion – in terrifying surround sound no less – and opened with the ravages of a bar with bodies, tables, chairs, lights and glitter ball strewn across the floor.

The angel (Bourne’s stunning male version of the fairy godmother Christopher Marney) casts a spell to rewind the clock to before the bomb went off.

The dancers and props move backwards in slow motion in such a way that it is hardly possible to believe it is live and not a film.

But things are rarely as they seem with a Bourne production, nor are they classic. Cinderella gets her man but they sleep together before they are wed and they both end up slight deranged before finally getting together on a Brief Encounter-style train.

I couldn’t take my eyes of the drunken stepmother (Michela Meazza) who was Joan Crawford-esque made up with equal measures of glamour and downright wickedness.

Bourne continues to have the wow factor.

Until Saturday

Rating * * * * *