In case you didn’t know, the Footlights Spring Revue is kind of a big deal – a packed-out-auditorium-every-night kind of a big deal. Relentlessly hyped up, it’s a forum for each year’s comedic troupe to show off a group of sketches they’re excited about, loosely tied together with an overarching theme. This year’s Dressing Down revolved around a gigantic wardrobe, giving our three hosts an opportunity to indulge their evident love of playing dress-up.

And dress up they did, swapping between air-hostess uniforms and cowboy hats and cat outfits and tutus and lab coats and mermaid costumes and – well, you get the picture - with an agility which was almost superhuman. Putting on a ninety minute sketch show with three performers is a tricky feat, but Harry Michell, Alex MacKeith and Will Attenborough seem to have an endless source of energy on tap.

From start to finish, Dressing Down knew it was a big deal. As the house lights dimmed, smoke poured from the stage and three robe-clad, dancing figures emerged. The show itself was a dizzying sprint through a series of parodies and pastiches; from silent-film slapstick to barbershop quartet to an Old Testament-themed game show. Clearly, these men have watched a lot of television. We were treated to an array of clever twists at the end of sketches and ‘wink wink’ moments which elicited knowing titters from the more pop-cultured members of the audience.

In fact, the standard adjective of the night was ‘clever’: the writing was clever; the intertextual references were clever; the staging was very clever indeed.  Sometimes ideas outstripped the execution – as in a particularly surreal sketch surrounding Munch’s ‘Scream’ – but for the most part, the best bits of Dressing Down were the result of brilliant performances. I can’t decide whether there’s anything inherently hilarious about Alex MacKeith’s body, or whether he’s just a great physical actor, but it’s probably a bit of both – think John Cleese in his famous ‘Ministry of Silly Walks’ sketch. MacKeith stood out as Josepi, the Italian magician, and with inspired characterisations of the Very Hungry Caterpillar and America’s iconic ‘Uncle Sam’.

Harry Michell delighted everyone with some witty ad-libbing as Tulisa the Mermaid, and with his representation of the villainous Frank the Cat. Michell particularly shone in sketches which allowed him to demonstrate the range of his skills as a performer: his rapid role-swapping skit with Will Attenborough about a cowardly break-up left the audience awed and slightly disorientated, and his nerdy musical ‘party trick’ was impressive enough to garner a laugh, even if it may not lead to making friends and influencing people.

Wide-eyed and lively, Attenborough seemed to have landed on the ADC stage straight out of theatre school. He charmed the audience as ‘Sugar Lumps’, the west-country horse, and his performance as the hammy host of Thanks, Leviticus! was one of the defining moments of the production.

A magical wardrobe is a great premise for a sketch show: everyone remembers the glee of pulling weird and wacky garments out of a dressing-up box as a child. Dressing Down didn’t always feel like a unified show, but it did capture this hodgepodge excitement. It was a treasure trove of of ingenious moments and patchy concepts, held together by three theatre moguls who were kind enough to take us along for the ride.