KATHERINE Kingsley produces a show-stopping performance as musical icon Dusty Springfield in a memorable evening at The Lowry in Salford.

Kingsley succeeds in evoking the star quality and charisma of one of Britain’s greatest female singers, along with her insecurities and life-long doubts over her abilities.

The Dusty Springfield Musical tells the story of Dusty’s life from her meteoric rise to international stardom in the 1960s, her fraught relationship with her mother and struggles with her sexuality, through her battle with drink and drugs and return to chart success in the 1980s.

The show is packed with ageless classics including ‘I Only Want To Be With You’, ‘I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself,’ and ‘Son Of A Preacher Man’, and the evening ends with a superb rendition of ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me.’

One of the highlights is a brilliant version of ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This?’, a song she recorded with The Pet Shop Boys in 1987 and which revived her career, hitting number two in the UK and US singles chart.

Kingsley is totally convincing as Dusty, and for fans of her music the show is a must-see, one which pulls no punches in showing the depths to which she sank as her career nosedived, before a glorious comeback in the 1980s.

The first half of the evening veers occasionally into traditional crowd-pleasing musical numbers, and the knockabout humour becomes increasingly irritating and in danger of distracting from the gripping drama of a woman’s battle with her inner demons as she bids for stardom.

However these are minor gripes, and the prolonged standing ovation at the end of the opening night was not only a reflection of the quality of the cast, with the mesmerising Katherine Kingsley at its heart, but also the timeless pull of Dusty Springfield’s songs and the love and affection people had and still have for her.

Dusty is written by Jonathan Harvey and directed by Maria Friedman, and continues at The Lowry until Saturday.