It’s so easy to laugh.

There’s King Ludwig of Bavaria, a grown man still awash with Little Lord Fauntleroy flouncery having hissy fits about interior decor. Or reviewing troops in mega-bling chain-mail, as if Wagner’s Lohengrin and not full-scale war was imminent. What a ridiculous fruit-loop. No wonder he got turfed off the throne in 1886. Kenny Miller’s designs ensure Ludwig goes over the top in outrageous fashion. Johnny ­McKnight, in clownish rouge and lippy, plays him in several shades of wickedly entertaining camp and a gallus Glesca accent ­brilliantly redolent of summer-stock vaudeville.

Cut to Dainsville, Texas in the 1940s – and again, it’s so easy to laugh at the mad, bad, dangerous antics of young James Avery, who has the hots for anything beautiful: a crystal swan he steals because “he needs it”; the local Miss Sweetie-Pie, Sally, whose home-baked cookies aren’t all he samples; his best friend, Henry Lee, whom he seduces with his favourite erotic book – an illustrated tome on Graeco-Roman art.

Like Ludwig, James craves – and finds – sexual and emotional release through an aesthetic gorgeousness that is totally out of kilter with each man’s environment. Not so much funny ha-ha, but potentially scary, even tragic.

For most of the first half, while it’s deliriously easy to laugh, it’s hard to see how Paul Rudnick’s slick, farcical script can draw together these parallel lives.The action cross-cuts between the actuality of Ludwig and the fiction of James at a pace so fast you can hardly believe the quick-change panache of the cast. But connection comes, after further fandangos of panto-worthy comedy, and with a twist that is a moving celebration of beauty as a transformative force in ­everyday lives.

Star rating: ****