From the opening fanfare of trumpets as the orchestra begins the overture to the final curtain call, Man of La Mancha is a terrifically entertaining night out.

The musical at the London Coliseum features Kelsey Grammer in the starring role as Don Quixote, the dreamy idealist of Miguel de Cervantes' classic novel of the same name.

It would seem a part almost tailor-made for Grammer, best known to TV audiences across the globe for his role in both Cheers and Frasier as Dr Frasier Crane - both Quixote and Crane share a charming pomposity and remarkable ability to make things worse through their best intentions.

But the surprise of the evening is that Grammer can also actually sing.

His rendition of the show's hit song The Impossible Dream (more correctly known as The Quest) beats Peter O'Toole's 1972 film version hands down for passion and sincerity.

For those unfamiliar with the story, it concerns the adventures of Alonso Quijana, an elderly gentleman, who has read too many novels about chivalry, and imagining himself to be the nobleman Don Quixote, a knight of old, sets off on adventures to battle evil everywhere.

The Don likes to see good and nobility in everyone and the plot centres around his adoration of Aldonza, a serving wench and part-time prostitute, who Quixote insists on viewing as the fair and chaste Lady Dulcinea.

Cervantes wrote his book in 1605, but director Lonny Price brings the story slap up to date by setting the opening scene in a prison in the not-too-distant future, in which the author Cervantes himself is awaiting trial by a totalitarian state for thought crime.

Cervantes-purists may at first be a little disturbed to see the prison guards dressed rather in the fashion of Star Wars Stormtroopers, but you can relax, we soon slip back into the traditional costumes of 17th century Spain as Cervantes begins to rehearse his defence by getting his fellow prisoners to act out the story he has written that has landed him in so much trouble. This plot contrivance requires all the actors to play at least two - and in Grammer's case three - characters, Cervantes, Quijana and Quixote.

One of the most fascinating things about the night is the way the play repeatedly slips from the sinister confines of the bleak 21st century prison to the gaiety of a Spanish inn four hundred years earlier - and then back again.

It is a contrivance that keeps the audience constantly on its toes as you are never quite sure where things are going to go next.

Man of La Mancha has some deeply humorous moments - Nicholas Lyndhurst (of Only Fools and Horses) is hilarious as the drunken innkeeper for example - but it is also very dark. Lyndhurst - contrary to type - also makes a spine-tremblingly sinister character as the Governor, the boss of the prison gang.

The main female role of Aldonza/Dulcinea is shared between Danielle de Niese and Cassidy Janson.

On the night of my visit, it was Miss Janson's turn.

Perhaps best known for her role in the West End as Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, she was excellent as the world-weary, sceptical and hard-boiled Aldonza, who only at the last moment - when it is too late - buys into Quixote's idealism and proclaims that she is indeed Dulcinea.

Janson is also centre-stage during the most disturbing scene of the night when she is attacked by the drunken patrons of the inn.

Other characters were also excellent - with Minal Patel as The Padre having a particularly strong voice. And of course the Coliseum itself is a star. The largest and most ornate theatre in London is always worth a visit in its own right.

If I have one criticism of the evening (and as fans of Frasier will know the evening can't be perfect unless there is one small thing to complain about) it would be that Peter Polycarpou, who played Quixote's servant Sancho Panza, was not given his own curtain call.

Polycarpou's performance was spotless throughout, his comic timing perfect, and he thoroughly deserved to be taking the bows alongside Grammer and Janson.

That aside, it was great show, which left the audience pondering as they journeyed home - just as the author intended - who was the mad one? Quixote for living in his fantasy world or ourselves for being content to live in the real one?

*Man of La Mancha runs only until June 8. Tickets start from £15 plus booking fee of £2.25 per ticket, from the box office at 020 7845 9300.