This new play was going to be an absolutely guaranteed smash hit from the day it was conceived.

It's a class example of the growing genre of theatre presentations in which you take a famous, much-loved, out of copyright novel (or film) and, with the minimum possible number of props and actors, create a thumping thriller and cracking comedy beyond compare.

Patrick Barlow led the way twenty years ago with his four-handed adaptation on John Buchan's The Thirty Nine Steps (recently seen at The New Vic.) Now, writer Deborah McAndrew and director Conrad Nelson have pushed the envelope even further with this incredibly clever and utterly hilarious version of the Stoke author Arnold Bennett's 1902 novel - set in the poshest hotel in London. And what a sinuous story it is!

The show opens with a lightly veiled and rather intelligent parody of Gilbert and Sullivan's Three Little Maids. All seems serene in the palatial foyer until one sinister phone call sets off a train of ludicrously involved consequences and leaves the audience hooked and helpless.

Created for a cast of five to play 15 parts (three actors play 13 of them!) means characters have to be bumped off at regular intervals to allow the actor to come back on stage as someone else. The immensely rich Racksoles, Theodore ( Adrian Pang) and his daughter Nella (Alice Pryor) are the constants. As for the rest, well there were more substitutions on the stage of The New Vic Theatre last night than at the Stoke City match last Saturday.

Michael Hugo is as brilliant as ever - from the evil, staring villain to the hangdog cockney copper trying to catch him. His scenes as the Ostend Ferry ticket collector (in cahoots with passenger Adrian Pang) are so calculatingly funny that the audience laughs when they see the gag coming and laugh again when it arrives. His cameo as the aged German Prince is unintelligibly bonkers and his slap-stick is world class. During a brilliantly created scene at sea, he showcases a routine with an oar live on stage. If in a movie this would require dozens of stop-start takes.

Emulating Hugo's talent for doubling up, Thomas Cotran plays the outlandishly murderous Italian chef and his victim. When apprehended, he sings an aria all the way to jail. You really never should ask a singing chef to 'come quietly'.

The third 'clown' is Shelley Atkinson who, as the hotel receptionist, has checked in the mysterious black veiled Baroness Zerlinski before disappearing just in time to portray her. Later, her Nanny Heidi channels the wonderful Cloris Leachman's memorable Frau Blucher (from Mel Brook's film Young Frankenstein).

Alice Proyer is impeccably American as the wealthy Heiress - complete with a gun in her handbag. She is dewy-eyed when in love and feisty when in captivity. Her timing is subtle and superb, especially when interjecting a critical conversation with asides on the hotel telephone.

Underlining all this belly-laughing broad humour is great attention to detail. There are gags within gags (if you can get them) and superbly constructed mime sequences. Adrian Pang's prolonged journey down a secret tunnel is manufactured purely from agility, facial expressions and a handful of lighting cues, which is amazingly executed in-the-round.

What would Mr Bennett make of this production? He'd be relieved that amidst the mayhem his excellent story survives and, as a fan of farce, would probably be kicking himself that he didn't think of some of the innovations himself.

The Grand Babylon Hotel is infernally captivating and brilliant throughout. It is only 'on' for three weeks - so be sure to make an immediate reservation.

Though I can't for one moment believe it won't be back sooner or later.

Five stars

Reviewed by Chris Eldon Lee at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme on Thursday 18 September.

The Grand Babylon Hotel continues to show at the venue until Saturday 4 October.