The Kinks were active for more than thirty years from 1963, with seventy-eight singles including three number one hits, and went on to inspire heavy metal and punk music.

Their story, from working class roots in London to their experiences in America including their innovations and personal differences is told with gusto and flair in the musical Sunny Afternoon which has arrived at the Alexandra Theatre.

The Sonia Friedman production, with a narrative told from the viewpoint of the original band’s lead singer Ray Davies who also wrote the lyrics, won four Olivier awards including Best New Musical in 2015 on its West End debut.

An opening set of towering speakers on opening night showed the cast strumming before we were introduced to The Ravens – the band name before they became The Kinks – performing with an old-style crooner.

Ray’s brother Dave, as we discover, prefers a raw sound and begins cutting up the amps and raising the volume to produce with a distorted guitar riff what becomes The Kinks’ first hard rock hit, You Really Got Me.

Danny Horn and Oliver Hoare play Ray and Dave with a relationship almost as strong as the siblings themselves, both having performed the roles in the West End and Chicago, while seven of the cast including Ben Caplan as their manager Eddie Kassner appeared in the original Hampstead Theatre performance.

As well as being excellent musicians, the lead vocalists are convincing in their strained relationship, with the introverted Ray more concerned with making music and being able to support the band and his family than basking in celebrity, and his brother standing out as the family wild child prone to unpredictable violence but with a vulnerable streak.

Harry Curley plays bass guitarist Peter Quaife, and Zakarie Stokes makes his professional debut as the drummer Mick Avory – the latter performing a breathtaking solo – but these two characters are underdeveloped in a story that is a little too pacey at times.

Pleasingly the show’s many songs are not simply shoehorned in but lend themselves well to the narrative, from the likes of Dead End Street sung around class differences and over rights; Where Have All The Good Times Gone around a clash between band members; and I Go To Sleep, sung warmly and beautifully by Lisa Wright as Rasa after her husband Ray returns from America full of self-doubt.

There is a solid supporting cast but it is the songs themselves that are the big star of the night, some in reduced length but others performed in full as if the audience were in a concert hall or on Top of the Pops.

The dancing in the aisles during the song medley finale, including Lola, and the standing ovation that followed made you feel that everyone went home happy.