In 1992, six years before Andrew Lloyd Webber’s version had its premiere in the West End, the composer-lyricist Richard Taylor and writer-director Russell Labey presented their musical adaptation of this tale of innocence and persecution. Based on Mary Hayley Bell’s original novel and Richard Attenborough and Bryan Forbes’s film, this show, created especially for the National Youth Music Theatre, is infinitely superior to the overblown saccharine work that followed it. Where the Lloyd Webber musical transferred the action to Louisiana, Taylor and Labey retain the 1950s rural Lancashire setting. Where Lloyd Webber’s score dripped sentiment, Taylor’s ripples with texture.

Folk tunes and the minor-key grandeur of religious music blend with compositions that convey the relentless buzz of gossip in a close-knit community, or the playground disputes and wide-eyed dreams of children. And Paul Hegarty’s potent production offers sweepingly impressive ensemble acting as well as delicate individual performances.

The plot tells of a group of children, led by sisters Cathy and Nan and their little brother Charlie, who, just before Christmas, discover a fugitive murderer hiding in a barn and imagine him to be Jesus. Hegarty’s staging emphasises the role of religion in the circumscribed lives of the townsfolk. Chris French as a bitter, waspish vicar is the local moral figurehead; residents poring over lurid newspaper reports of the convict’s escape with mixed anxiety and relish are arranged in a Crucifix-formation with their playing children, their voices and lives crisscrossing musically and visually.

The choirboy clarity of the younger performers contrasts effectively with impressive interpretations of the more mature roles. Rhiannon Douty is a terrific Cathy, voice soaring, face radiant with simple, unquestioning faith. Archie Sullivan and Milli Karlstrom are sparky and wonderfully natural as her brother and sister; and, as the hunted man, Dom Hodson displays a saturnine intensity and a considerable vocal gift. This is stirring theatre, presented with a level of flair and sophistication that makes you feel you have been present at the nativity of a whole host of new stars of the musical stage.

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