'WORLD Premiere' and 'The Everyman' - now that's a creative combination to savour on Merseyside.

And Cherry Jezebel ticks all the right boxes - a stand-out play with a big heart in a theatre with a reputatioin for supporting new voices and discovering its fair share of outstanding talent.

Cherry Jezebel is the Everyman at its best.

Writer Jonathan Larkin and director James Baker have created a no-holds-barred story of a drag queen and the company she keeps in a world that is both intensely private and yet OTT showbizzy.

Actor Mickey Jones, who went from Bootle to Brookie, started his career at the Everyman Youth Theatre and, for a while, changed his name from Jones to Poppins.

He later dropped the Disney-esque name reverting to Jones amd chose directing as his career path quickly proving a hit with casts frm Corrie to EastEnders and Emmerdale.

He recently stepped back on the boards after two decades behind the camera.

He appeared in in Our Lady of Blundellsands and from there has stepped into the scuffed stiletto heels of Cherry Brandy.

His performance as the 'Sheil Road Shirley Temple' is a tour-de-force - a character who is tough and vulnerable in equal measures.

Mickey's timing is perfect wth every spat out barb offset by softly- spoken reflections on love, betrayal, desperation and straw-clutching hope.

The fact is you care about Cherry B.

We first see her receiving an award 'The MerseyPride Icon Award.'

In reality, I believe Mickey deserves a gong in his own right for his finely-tuned performace.

But this is an ensemble piece and three fellow actors give 100 per cent: George Jones as paramedic Mo with his own sex secret, Maria Louca as straight-talking Heidi and Stefan Race as the fragile Pearl.

All the pieces fit in writer Jonathan's jigsaw.

Cherry Jezebl is described as a play that 'celebrates queerness', yet there are so many other issues covered in this two-hour production.

Raw, raucous, riotous there are are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments in a well-honed script that keeps your attention from the moving intro to the final illuminating scene.

This play has a 'movement and intimacy director - which proves it takes its subject matter very seriously - but that doesn't mean at the expense of outrageous fun.

Globe verdict: Five stars

This Cherry will bowl you over

The production is at the Everyman until March 26

Tickets from the box office on 0151 709 4776