Churchill Theatre, Bromley – until 18th August 2018
Reviewed by Elizabeth Smith
3***
Flashdance – The Musical tells the story of Alex, a welder by day and club dancer at night, with ambitions of attending the prestigious Shipley Dance Academy. The back drop to the story is her love affair with the bosses son, the potential redundancies of her co workers and the ambitions of her friend Gloria to become a MTV dancer.
Alex is played by Joanne Clifton of Strictly come Dancing fame. She surprised me with the fact she could sing with power and feeling, while acting a role of the feisty, determined character, nice to see there is more to the dancer than you may first see. Of course her dancing was amazing and performed with so much energy and poise.
Alex’s love interest is her boss Nick Hurley, of the Hurley family who own the factory Alex works in. He is sent in to cut the work force and falls for Alex who rebuffs his advances at first but he wins her over. Although he does give a large donation to the Dance academy to ensure her entry but that part of the story didn’t quite get resolved in the story. Nick was played by Ben Adams, of boy band A1. He had a lovely singing voice, very boy band, which works in this modern musical.
Alex’s friend Gloria, Hollie-Ann Lowe, wants to be a MTV dancer and decides to dance in a rival night club but the punters want a little more than she is, at first, willing to give. Her character shows how a dream can turn into a nightmare when drink and drugs help you through. Hollie-Ann Lowe gave a convincing performance as Gloria. Dammiliegh Foster plays Tess, her voice was a power house when she sang “I Love Rock N Roll” and a dancer who draws your attention. Sashaa Latoya who plays Louise, nurse to Hannah, Alex’s mentor. Her surly attitude gave great humour.
Rhodri Watkins, played Andy, and stood out for me with his performance of a young father of 3 trying to do the best he could when facing redundancy and what a mover in the dance scenes.
If you love dance this show hits all the spots, unfortunately I felt the script was slightly padded out with fluff when it could have expanded on some of the other characters.
Over all, the dancing was fab and inspired me to skip to the car.