Cilla Black was a nation’s favourite, though never properly recognised (a piffling OBE) for the huge talents – musical, comical, all-round good-eggishness – she possessed.

Each of these is celebrated – the first principally – in the marvellous stage show that’s a must-see this week at the New Theatre. Its origin was the Jeff Pope-scripted TV mini-series of 2014 in which Sheridan Smith shone as the Liverpool chanteuse.

Cilla’s sudden death in the summer of the following year raised a question over a seemingly hasty translation of the material to the musical stage.

Happily, her son (and manager) Robert Willis decided the world was ready for mum’s star quality to blaze again as it does in a tour de force performance from Kara Lily Hayworth.

Under the practised hand of showbiz legend Bill Kenwright – directing with Bob Tomson – the story of Cilla’s rise to the top is told with consummate skill.

That it seems sometimes slightly long in the telling is owing only to the surfeit of other stories to be told.

Cilla’s slow-developing romance with Bobby Willis (Carl Au, an uncanny lookalike) – later to become her manager and loving husband – is one thread.

Another (which for brevity I would have avoided) concerns the family difficulties occasioned by his being Protestant and she Catholic.

Cilla’s saggy-vested ex-merchant seaman dad (Neil MacDonald) and prim houseproud mum (Pauline Fleming) would still have been a pleasure to meet without the religious dimension.

A third theme is the troubled gay life of her manager Brian Epstein (shown in his polite middle-class manner by Andrew Lancel). And then – of course – there is her friendship with his most famous charges, The Beatles, whom we meet, and hear superbly, in Michael Hawkins’s John, Joshua Gannon’s Paul, Alex Harford’s George and Bill Caple’s Ringo.

Under musical director Scott Alder, the many songs come across perfectly, including Cilla’s No 1 hits Anyone Who Had a Heart and You’re My World and the No 2 You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling – a duet with Bobby – which I thought better than the Righteous Brothers’ version.

Cilla The Musical runs till Saturday (08448713020, atgtickets.com/oxford) 4/5