Given my disappointment that David Hyde Pierce had failed to materialise in London with the rest of the American cast of Spamalot, imagine my delight the day before I went to New York to learn that he was currently taking the lead in a musical on Broadway.

Just 25 hours, no sleep, two plane journeys, two train journeys, a quick meal, and a hop around the corner later I was in New York watching his Tony award-winning performance.

Curtains, a new musical penned by John Kander and Fred Ebb (Chicago), is a comedy telling the story of a detective investigating the suspicious death of a rather abysmal and unpopular stage actress named Jessica Cranshaw (Patty Goble) on opening night in Boston in 1959.

Since Cranshaw’s dreadful routine had threatened the show’s longevity, everyone involved in the production is a murder suspect, so musical fan Lieutenant Frank Cioffi (Pierce) keeps everyone housed in the theatre while he tries to crack the case. He also becomes involved creatively in the show, a Western-themed “Robbin’ Hood!”, putting forward ideas to ensure its success when it eventually travels to Broadway.

Cioffi is smitten with actress Niki Harris (Erin Davie), a sweet young lady who is keen to help him solve the mystery. She keeps finding and bringing him threatening notes from the killer, which she accidentally keeps getting her fingerprints all over.

Many jokes centre on backstage stereotypes, and more than a handful touch on Pierce’s role as Dr Niles Crane in Frasier, although initially not all of these were picked up by the audience. However, this being America, the gay jokes, of which there were many, went down very well, as did Niki’s paranoid quip about murder being “like a hobby” in Britain. The particular Brit she was referring to was the director Christopher Belling, played by Edward Hibbert with his usual campy, hammy acting.

Debra Monk gave a wonderful showing as the bitter, sexually frustrated producer Carmen Bernstein, with a marvellous, brassy voice that suited the big, bold, Broadway tunes of Curtains. Carmen is determined not to give her daughter Elaine, aka Bambi (Megan Sikora), a major role in the musical for fear it will be seen as nepotism rather than evidence of Bambi’s talent.