What would Cole Porter make of today’s reconstituted musicals, where artists’ back catalogues are routinely ransacked in the belief that strung together chart hits make great theatre? Perhaps he would have shrugged a shoulder in the knowledge that, where popular culture is concerned, 'anything goes’; after all, Broadway fashions come and go. Of course, some stay with us, and thankfully this one remains in the premier league. Perhaps it is even, to borrow from one of its most memorable numbers, the top.

Understandably, some of its sentiments are rooted in their time. For instance, there’s plenty of national and racial stereotyping (although it’s never quite as overdone as in a Rodgers and Hammerstein). However, most of its period features are irresistible. A whole cruise-ship full of wise-cracking gangsters, tap-dancing nuns, cheeky sailors and crimp-haired flapper girls is never likely to sink.

It’s the big chorus numbers that really shine in Oxford Operatic Society’s production. Two in particular raise a hearty grin – the title song that closes the first act, and Act Two’s centrepiece, ‘Blow Gabriel Blow’. Perhaps this is because they are led by the nightclub starlet Reno Sweeney, in a powerhouse performance by Julia Canning. Canning is a joy to watch and listen to, effortlessly nailing Cole Porter’s ingenious lyrics and melodies. She evidently relishes the classic rhyming games of ‘You’re the top’, and the dubious ‘friendship’ celebrated in her duet with Public Enemy No.13, Moonface Martin.

So much so, perhaps, that some of the other characters find it a little difficult to live up to her charm and chutzpah. The darling debutante Hope, played by Sally Chase, seems rather flat in Reno’s company, but the golden girls aren’t always the most beguiling. Hope does get some plum songs – the silky ‘All through the night’ and ritzy ‘It’s De-Lovely’, but Chase’s delivery is a little on the wobbly side. Antony Gibson’s Billy also wavers occasionally, but he plays him with such wide-eyed good humour and generosity that such minor quibbles are easily forgiven.

Supporting characters also steal the show at various moments. Tim Younger’s Lord Evelyn, a loveable twit-in-tweeds, gets his own spicy polka, ‘The Gypsy in Me’, and Andy Blagrove’s Goodfella gangster Moon even doles out a pacifying piece of philosophy, urging us to ‘Be like the Blue Bird’. These numbers might be less glamorous, but they’re hardly filler; this is Cole Porter, after all.

The title is deceptive, then. In this musical, it isn’t just anything that goes. And the complex crafting underneath the surface sheen is given utmost respect by directors, musicians and actors alike. As Porter puts it, ‘it’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s delectable, it’s delirious, it’s de-lovely’. Pretty much spot on there, Cole.