The Illusionists (Shaftesbury Theatre)

The Illusionists arrives in the West End to blow all your fusty, Paul Daniels-influenced preconceptions of magic out of the water. This is uber-magic: big, loud, sexy and tinged with the smell of expensive pyrotechnics. But the show is still as cheesy as a cheese puff.

A massive Broadway hit already, the London run is headed up by Britain’s Got Talent runner-up (he lost out to a dancing dog) Jamie Raven. He’s a vapid addition to the seven-strong line-up of otherwise very commanding performers, whose skills range from being good at shooting things (rather unnervingly, Ben Blaque is called the Weapons Master) to being good at getting out of things (Andrew Basso, the Escapologist). With lots of pumped up pecs and ridiculous nicknames, this show is very macho: the women are confined to being dancers and the assistants.

But when Raven comes on he tells us how thankful he is for us helping him get where he is today. The best of his very gentle tricks is when he rips up a newspaper only to have it miraculously reform into a full page. Yes, he’s the sort of guy you could take home to meet the parents, but in a show otherwise full of punchy attitude, it jars.

The performers' one or two set pieces are accompanied by booming live rock music and a team of upbeat dancers wearing leather and burlesque dresses, who cavort around the moodily-lit stage during the changes. Basso’s upside down dip into a water tank whilst tied up – a trick once done by Harry Houdini – only to escape with the help of a paper clip is a stand out moment. It’s mainly his lung span that impresses (five minutes under water!), but the trick is expertly built up and will have you biting your nails in anticipation.

Elsewhere Den Den (the Manipulator) produces lots of white origami birds from one, they are great for the first minute, but quickly get repetitive; Colin Cloud the Deductionist has charm, but it’s easy to see through his yarns. There’s also plenty of audience interaction, the funniest being David Williamson’s trickster clowning routine with four confused children. But it’s a little end-of-pier for this show.

It’s an odd mix of souped-up and slick with the slightly shoddy, and if you’re looking for the sort of magic that will make you a believer, you won't find it here.

The Illusionists runs at the Shaftesbury Theatre until 3 January.