You know you're headed for theatre's Final Frontier and not just your seat when you pass a serene middle-aged couple in mid-aisle, resplendent in racy blue Thunderbirds caps at rakish angles, quietly and separately engrossed in The Independent. Yes, this is retro-nostalgia in all its glory and last night it had sucked diehard fans out of the woodwork like hapless thumb tacks to a horse magnet. For those of you who have been living on another planet for the last four decades the show is based on the original 1960's Thunderbirds 'Supermarionation' (that's funky-pupppets-with-strings) TV series by Gerry Anderson, in which Good reassuringly defeated Bad, week after week.

The very first thing that registers with ths production is the fever pitch of excitement in the foyer as hordes of ecstatic kids explode into the theatre leaving the sedately shuffling adults in their wake looking like a re-enactment of an Iron Curtain bread queue. (Their fizzing little forms disappear completely once seated, imbuing the delighted giggles that later abound with a groovily spooky disembodiedness).

The simple but stunningly effective set and catchy 60's series-style music serves to immediately kickstart the kitsch memories. By the time the show starts with one of the instantly familiar characters dramatically backlit and uncannily identical to the original marionette in both appearance and -hilariously - movement the audience is well on its way. We're launched full tilt into an appropriately simple plot: the President of America is balanced precariously on a sabotaged bridge, in a clear and present danger of being annihilated by the evil Mr X. Can the Thunderbirds - with the help of the dashing and show-stealing Captain Scarlet - save him in time?!

Who cares!? For as the refreshing mix of kids and adults denotes, the attraction of the show is that it both pays homage to and caricatures the endearingly cheesy yet compelling original, peppered in all its splendour with corny dialogue, a geeky wholesomeness, overly dramatic climaxes and and the laughably unfortunate yet unavoidable limitations of using marionettes - naff jerky movements, wooden expressions (ho ho!) etc.

Having said all that, and it pains me to say this, the show -excellent as it is - should be better. Especially considering the luxury fine-tuning time generated by its phenomenal run. The actors have been doing it on and off since 1984, the debut of what was to become probably the most unlikely smash hit the West End's ever seen . (The show was so popular in fact it single-handedly prompted the BBC to dust off its episodes for a glorious re-release). The storyline is a bit unclear to begin with and loses some of the kids, a few of the mime sequences are a little too long (and could do with some kind of musical accompaniment) and a stronger, more cohesive narrative is required overall to offset the slightly fragmented feeling generated by the fact that it's a cast of merely two. (Though it's a superb cast, no doubts there.)

However it remains to be said that the show is knee deep in enough pure comic genius to make it more than worthwhile. Dazzlingly clever and inventive (the Thunderbirds launch, for instance, had them howling), even the curtain call is inspired as the actors toss a bonus Gerry Anderson gem our way with effortless aplomb.

It's a short show, and slightly uneven, but you're unlikely to have so much unadulterated fun or see anything like it in a theatre for a long, long time. Catch it if you can - (sorry, just can't resist this...)- It's A Blast!

Monica Pausina