Times change, but Cole Porter speaks to every generation. Anyone who needs convincing of that should get hold of the forthcoming collection of covers by the ultra-hip Chicago jazz singer Patricia Barber. John Kane and David Kernan’s genial show – first mounted at the Vaudeville in 1991 – takes a more sedate journey through the repertoire.

The script, narrated by the urbane Simon Green – playing the great man himself – confines itself to broad-brush biography, content to let the songs do most of the talking. Hollywood, Paris and Monty Woolley all come hurtling past, and that fateful riding accident, which blighted the second half of Porter’s life, is never allowed to cast too dark a shadow. Insouciance is all.

If the script furnished few surprises, the musicianship was first-rate. Just for a change the first plaudits ought to go to the twin pianists and musical directors, David Firman and Jason Carr, who supplied a lush backdrop. They also made the most of the joyous entr’acte, hamming it up on Anything Goes.

It took some time to adjust to Cadogan Hall’s austere acoustic. Nevertheless, the two female leads, Maria Friedman and Mary Carewe, were on immaculate form. I can remember feeling unconvinced when Friedman sang I Happen to Like New York in her one-woman show many moons ago. This time there was not a hint of doubt. You could almost smell the aroma of taxi fumes and expensive cigarettes.

Daniel Evans, angelic as ever, offered a compelling version of Love for Sale. Sung by a man, the lyrics sounded even more careworn than usual, the staccato accompaniment hinting at Brecht and Weill’s lower depths. The bolero setting on Begin the Beguine was less successful, since it undermined the natural flow of the phrases.

Simon Green suffered a minor memory lapse towards the end, but his low-key portrayal of Porter conveyed the sense of a man intent on not allowing the mask to slip. For his part, Graham Bickley scored a triumph in a bravura version of that ultimate tongue-twister, Can Can. And the hushed ensemble on Night and Day and In the Still of the Night was nothing short of exquisite.

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