Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures, Theatre Royal, until May 19, call 01273 709709

The show might be called Early Adventures but director Matthew Bourne was a late starter who took up dance at the age of 22. Thank goodness; had the usual ballet-school formalities been drummed in at a tender age, we might never have got the wit, imagination and sheer irreverence of productions like this. Revisiting four of his inceptive works 25 years on, tonight’s programme launched with Spitfire, a hilarious but precisely executed parody of the idealised male form, with the rippling bodies of a posturing all-male cast performing acrobatics in their undies to the sound of Minkus’s Don Quixote – and delighted peals of laughter from the audience.

This cheeky, homoerotic element persisted throughout the evening but unlike Bourne’s best-known piece, Swan Lake, the rest of the bill included female dancers too, and there was electricity between pairings, and triplings, of all genders.

In Town, an Upstairs Downstairs pastiche of inter-war British life, a maid and manservant scrubbed their superiors to Eric Coates’s Desert Island Discs theme in saucy, burlesque fashion. Yet somehow, the perfectly co-ordinated towel-shimmying was as exquisite and ethereal as it was suggestive. Only Country, a farcical take on rural life – complete with bumpkin costumes, dead hedgehogs, clogs and Carry On winks – strayed into overkill territory on the clichés.

Thankfully, the best was yet to come. Bringing up the derriere, Infernal Galop – or Paris “as seen by the uptight English imagination” – gave us Edith Piaf and Django Reinhardt, garcons and filles in braces, and a deliciously steamy scene in the pissoir.

Sexy and joyous from start to finish, Bourne’s Adventures paid tribute to his reputation as “Britain’s favourite choreographer”. Long may they continue.