Just as Pet Shop Boys took inspiration from the well-dressed Italian youth subculture for their excellent 1986 B-side ‘Paninaro’, Pete Townshend tapped into the Mod zeitgeist of 1960s Britain with Quadrophenia. Post-war malaise and adolescent angst led to violent tribal clashes between Lambretta scooter gangs in Fred Perry shirts and their rivals, the Rockers. Using The Who’s 1973 concept album as its springboard, this 2025 update by Sadler’s Wells comes with a soaring new musical arrangement by Townshend’s wife Rachel Fuller, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and played pre-recorded tonight.

The dancing sizzles and dazzles, headlined by a kinetic tornado from the stunningly lithe Paris Fitzpatrick, playing main character Jimmy with all the burning shame and horny longing of a tortured teen. Serena McCall is his sensuous muse, rippling through curvy choreography from Paul Roberts with high-energy grace. Euan Garrett (the Friend), Jack Widdowson (the Godfather) and Dan Baines (Ace Face) all put in magnetic turns too, making sure that dance is this production’s strongest suit.

Last summer, YeastCulture projected lights onto George Heriot’s for the Edinburgh International Festival opening event, and here supply impressive visuals of crashing waves and Brighton beach for the cast to rampage and frolic around. It’s the undercurrent of male crisis, however, that gives this multi-faceted show the narrative grounding that it needs. Pinballing between scenes in a London nightclub, factory production line and warzone frontline, the thread stitching it all together is Jimmy’s turbulent search for identity and belonging, to stay afloat when the crushing fear of being boring, or worse, looking uncool, might be enough to pull him under.

Quadrophenia: A Mod Ballet tours until Saturday 19 July; reviewed at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh; main picture: Johan Persson.