The Black and White Ball - TNT

At least part of the enjoyment of this charmingly old-fashioned but likeable new musical mystery comes from the vastly improved seating at this popular pub theatre. The tables have been removed and, at last, you can sit back onthe functional but adequately padded bench seating and concentrate on what's happening on stage.
Not that one needs to pay too much attention to work out who, back in the late 40's at a masked Manhattan ball, shot Chris Ellis-Stanton's successful hick novelist Jay on the very night he intended to reveal his next manuscript. But there's a stylish period feel to the whole enterprise – the vintage high society costumes. the careful hair styles, and the noirish construction as Leah (herself now a writer) revisits the scene of the crime and, twenty years after the event, tries to remember exactly what it was she witnessed when she was only a child.
I didn't believe a word of it, but Cole Porter's songs are nicely integrated into the narrative and (as the drag queen befriended by the troubled Jay) Mark McGee throws a hissy fit and dances the can-can with equal panache.
Kings Head Theatre, Upper Street, NI. (0844-890 0149). Until May 4. £20- £25 (concessions available).