Good acting and good singing do not always work together in musicals, but director Sam Rayner successfully combines the two in Nine, a clever, fun, and entertaining production that is as much a delight to listen to as it is to behold.

Maury Yeston’s diverse score ranges from the hilarious ‘Guido’s Song’ to the tenderly affective ‘Nine’, sung by Georgina Skinner, and Maria Pawlikowska’s seductively sensual ‘Be Italian’. Under the baton of musical director Ben Glassberg, the band does a superb job complementing the singing and action, giving the production an engaging momentum while shifting seamlessly from one musical number to the next.

ADC stalwart Robbie Aird delivers a solid performance as the self-absorbed Italian film director Guido who struggles to find a story for his upcoming film. The convincing depiction of Guido’s strange, rich psychology and imagination is aided by the effective use of projection and the unobtrusive, minimalist set, which also allows us to focus on the hypnotic dance movements of characters as they swirl round Guido with increasing intensity.

Nine has its poignant moments, notably during the touching embrace of self with self when Alexander Boyd’s charmingly innocent young Guido sings ‘Getting Tall’, and when Guido grovels pitifully before his wife Luisa, played by Lauren Hutchinson, who displays sadness, pain and anger with remarkable control.

Lily Parham is captivating as Guido’s overbearing producer Liliane La Fleur, although the energy of her vocals is not always sustained. And the decision to have her character interact directly with the audience at one point seemed – while eliciting much laughter – to break the fourth wall simply for the sake of doing so.

The actors attempt Italian accents with varying degrees of success, and Aird’s performance is occasionally overshadowed by the impressive, forceful stage presences and consistently high-quality vocals of most of the main actors and ensemble. This, together with the clichéd lyrics and unmemorable quality of some of Yeston’s songs, also makes it difficult sometimes to remember in retrospect who sang what.

But these are mostly minor shortcomings, and for the most part, Nine is a polished, slick production that brings together some of the best of Cambridge musical theatre, and should not be missed.