Month: November 2017

Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester – until 16 December 2017.  Reviewed by Marcus Richardson

3***

The European premiere of Little Woman took its place at the Hope Mill Theatre in Ancoats, Manchester.   The musical set in Concord and New York during 1869 follows the life of the March sisters, mostly Jo March who is aspiring to be a world renowned writer. The venue is something I must note, that feels like a beacon in the dark, gave me this quaint homely feel that fitted the production very well.

The show had a small but strong cast that features a good collection of performers who both can sing and act. The main character Jo played by Amie Giselle-Ward captured the adventurous and rebellious character so well with that sense of energy. We are given this whole imagery throughout the show which would make a beautiful painting and that’s how I can describe the production, very picturesque and calming to look at and experience.

The musical fits into an old timey feel with the setting of the 1860s mirrored in the songs and dances. You can see those classic musicals like Carousel and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers influenced in the performance. The songs did have something original about them though and didn’t seem replicated to other musicals.

Whilst I’m not overly a fan of musicals, I did enjoy going to watch this, however if you are a fan of classic musicals you will love it.

PHIL DANIELS TO LEAD THE COMPANY IN UK TOUR OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON’S 

DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE

Touring Consortium Theatre Company and Rose Theatre Kingston present

DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE

By Robert Louis Stevenson

Adapted by David Edgar

Touring Consortium Theatre Company and Rose Theatre Kingston today announce that Phil Daniels will lead the company in the titular role of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde on a tour of the UK.

The production, adapted by David Edgar and directed by Kate Saxon, opens on 14 February at Rose Theatre Kingston with previews from 9 February and will then tour to His Majesty’s Theatre Aberdeen, Malvern Festival Theatre, Dartford Orchard, Nottingham Theatre Royal, Blackpool Grand Theatre, Wycombe Swan, King’s Theatre Edinburgh, Bradford Alhambra, Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, Cambridge Arts Theatre, before completing its run at the Darlington Hippodrome from the 14 until 19 May.

A twisted tale of nerve-jangling horror, this adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic gothic thriller stars Phil Daniels as both Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

In a secret experiment, the upright and respectable Dr Henry Jekyll splits his personality into two, releasing the fiendish and murderous Edward Hyde.

As Hyde brings about mayhem, terror and death in foggy London, can Jekyll find a way to suppress his monstrous alter-ego, before it takes him over for good?

David Edgar is a Tony Award-winning playwright for stage, radio, television and film. His original plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company include Destiny, Pentecost (Evening Standard best play award), The Prisoner’s Dilemma and Written on the Heart. His RSC adaptations include The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, Nicholas Nickleby (Society of West End Theatres and New York Tony awards), and, most recently, A Christmas Carol. For the National Theatre he wrote Entertaining Strangers (starring Tim Pigott-Smith and Judi Dench), The Shape of the Table, Albert Speer and Playing with Fire. Other adaptations include Julian Barnes’s Arthur & George at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. His other recent work includes Testing the Echo for Out of Joint and If Only for the Chichester Festival Theatre, as well as translations of Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo (with Timothy West, Birmingham Rep), Brecht’s Mother Courage (Stratford Festival, Ontario) and Ibsen’s Master Builder (Chichester Festival Theatre). He has adapted many of his plays for television and radio, and wrote the screenplay for Helena Bonham Carter’s first film Lady Jane. He founded Britain’s first postgraduate playwriting course, and has served as President of the Writers’ Guild.

Phil Daniels plays the title roles. For theatre his credits include King Lear (Chichester Festival Theatre), Anthony and Cleopatra, Knight of The Burning Pestle (Shakespeare’s Globe), Les Miserables (Queens Theatre) and This House (National Theatre and Garrick Theatre). On television, he is perhaps best known for his role as Kevin Wicks in EastEnders. His other television work includes Zapped, Mooonfleet, Doctor Who, Rocks and Chips, New Tricks, Misfits, Outlaws, Waking the Dead, The Long Firm, Time Gentlemen Please, Holding On and Sex, Chips and Rock n Roll. For film, Access All Areas, The Hatton Garden Job, This House, Vinyl, Goodbye Charlie Bright, Chicken Run, Scum and Quadrophenia.

Kate Saxon directs. She has directed over 35 theatre productions, including the world première of John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman, which opened in the US and then transferred to the UK, the first revival of Susan Glaspell’s Chains of Dew (Orange Tree), The Real Thing (ETT/West Yorkshire Playhouse), and the US première of Nine Parts of Desire (The Public, New York). Having been Associate Director of Shared Experience Theatre from 2000 – 2012, Kate is now one of a group of artistic associates running the company and has recently directed their tour of As You Like It. Kate is Chair of Stage Directors UK. She was Voice Director on Paramount’s animated feature film, Capture The Flag, which won the Goya Award for Best Animated Film 2016. Kate is currently developing a new film by Samuel Evans, working title Hold Me, and is one of 15 female TV and film directors chosen as one of the inaugural BAFTA Elevate group. For television, Kate’s work includes EastEnders. For video games, Kate directs Cinematics and titles include Mafia III, Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture and Alien: Isolation, which between them have won 4 BAFTAs.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Listings

Rose Theatre Kingston

Friday 9 – Saturday 17 February

Press Night: Thursday 14 February

Box office: 020 8174 0090

www.rosetheatrekingston.org

His Majesty’s Theatre Aberdeen

Tuesday 20 – Saturday 24 February

Box Office: 01224 641122

www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/events/dr-jekyll-mr-hyde

Malvern Festival Theatre

Tuesday 27 February – Saturday 3 March

Box Office: 01684 892277

www.malverntheatres.co.uk

Dartford Orchard Theatre

Tuesday 13 – Saturday 17 March

Box Office: 01322 220000

www.orchardtheatre.co.uk

Nottingham Theatre Royal

Tuesday 20 – Saturday 24 March

Box Office: 0115 989 5555

www.trch.co.uk

Grand Theatre Blackpool

Tuesday 27 – Saturday 31 March
Box Office: 01253 290190

www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk

Wycombe Swan

Tuesday 3 April – 7 April

Box Office:  01494 512000

www.wycombeswan.co.uk

King’s Theatre Edinburgh

Tuesday 10 – 14 April

Box Office: 0131 529 6000

www.edtheatres.com

Bradford Alhambra

Tuesday 17 – Saturday 21 April

Box Office: 01274 432000

www.bradford-theatres.co.uk

Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

Tuesday 1 – Saturday 5 May

Box Office: 01902 429 212

www.grandtheatre.co.uk

Cambridge Arts Theatre
Tuesday 8 – Saturday 12 May

Box office: 01223 503 333

www.cambridgeartstheatre.com

Darlington Hippodrome

Tuesday 15 – Saturday 19 May

Box Office: 01325 405405

www.darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk

Twitter: #JekyllPlay

Jonathan Kydd presents:

Producers have revealed that Benidorm Live, the new stage show based on the hit ITV comedy premiering at Newcastle Theatre Royal next year, will star six of the original TV cast .

Set to bring a heady dose of Spanish sunshine and smiles to Newcastle audiences, the first ever stage version of Derren Litten’s hit ITV comedy Benidorm Live opens on Friday 7 September prior to a major national tour.

It is now confirmed that six members of the TV cast, all much loved stars from the infamous Solana Hotel, will perform in the hotly anticipated new show.  Swapping sangria for the stage after a quick spruce at the Blow ‘n’ Go! will be everyone’s favourites Jake  Canuso (Lothario barman Mateo), Janine Duvitski (middle aged swinger

Jacqueline), Adam Gillen (holidaying teenager Liam), Sherrie Hewson (Solana manageress Joyce Temple-Savage), Shelley Longworth (loud mouthed lassie Sam), and Tony Maudsley (flamboyantly camp hairdresser Kenneth).

Litten has written a new set of Alicante escapades for the debut stage production of the hugely popular show.  On making its transfer, writer Derren Litten said: “I’ve loved ten years of writing my TV show Benidorm but despite a successful writing career I’m first and foremost a performer so have always been secretly frustrated I couldn’t hear the audience’s laughter. This national tour of Benidorm Live will not only make a long lasting dream come true but will also mean I no longer have to stand in strangers gardens listening at their windows at 9 o’clock on cold winter evenings.”

ITV’s smash-hit comedy celebrates a decade of all-inclusive hilarity, having followed the ensemble cast of holiday makers and staff for nine series since it first broadcast in 2007. Season 10 is due to broadcast early 2018.

Critically acclaimed, Benidorm has received two National Television Awards a TV Quick Award and nominations at the British Comedy Awards and BAFTAs.

After leaving school in Hull in the late 1980’s Derren Litten spent a year working as a professional magician whilst auditioning for drama schools.  He won a place on the 3 year acting course at the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama where he met fellow student Catherine Tate.  After 10 years of working as an actor, Derren was asked by Catherine to write for her newly commissioned TV sketch show, The Catherine Tate Show; in which he also appeared in many of the sketches.  After co-writing and appearing in two series and a Christmas Special, Derren was given a script commission by legendary comedy producer Geoffrey Perkins, “just write anything you want as long as it’s funny” he said; that show turned out to be ITV’s BAFTA nominated hit comedy Benidorm. Derren’s hobbies include drinking and karaoke, usually in that order. He splits his time equally between homes in London and Spain.

The show will be produced for the stage by Newcastle’s own Michael Harrison and David Ian.  Other UK Tour dates to be announced.

Benidorm Live premieres at Newcastle Theatre Royal on Fri 7 Sep 2018 and runs until Sat 15 Sep, playing evenings at 7.30pm, matinees on Thu 2pm and Sat 2.30pm. Tickets are from £16.50 and can be purchased from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 (Calls cost 7ppm plus your phone company’s access charge) or book online at www.theatreroyal.co.uk

The Bunker’s Spring Season 2018
The Bunker, 53A Southwark Street London SE1 1RU
Wednesday 17th January – Saturday 26th May 2018

The Bunker’s Spring 2018 season sees the venue truly celebrate its place as a playground for ambitious artists and adventurous audiences, just over a year after it first opened its doors. The bold season, including works by Terry Johnson and Izzy Tennyson, highlights the venue’s commitment to work with exciting playwrights, both established and emerging

The Bunker’s ethos encourages audiences to stay in the auditorium long after performances have ended, offering the opportunity for audiences to mingle with artists. In this vein, the venue is committed to keeping its work accessible to its core audience, expanding its Under 25s £10 ticket offer to now include all under 30. For the Spring Season, The Bunker will also unveil its new entrance area, which will be freshly decked and refurbished, with a brand new bar area serving craft lager and ales on draught for the first time.

The season opens with Ken, written by Olivier and Tony award-winning writer Terry Johnson, which transfers from Hampstead Theatre following a riotously successful run in their Downstairs studio last year. Ken pays tribute to the truly original and unclassifiable Ken Campbell – maverick writer, theatre director, and legendary practical joker. Following this, DumbWise Theatre reinvent Electra,
reimagining this murderous Greek myth of power and prophecy as a lyrical modern epic with a live punk-rock score.

Artistic Director Joshua McTaggart will direct the world premiere of Devil With The Blue Dress by Kevin Armento, a play that interrogates the infamous Monica Lewinsky Scandal. This five-strong female cast play also marks The Bunker’s first American production. The season concludes with Izzy Tennyson’s Grotty, which offers a dark and savage journey that digs beneath the surface of lesbian subculture in London.

Joshua McTaggart, The Bunker’s Artistic Director, comments, It is incredibly exciting to announce The Bunker’s spring 2018 season – our first season of fully curated work since we opened our doors back in October 2016. In the past year we have discovered so much about our space, our audience, and our artists, and these four shows reflect the height of what we want to be doing at The Bunker in
bringing ambitious artists and adventurous audiences together into our shared space. From Terry Johnson’s celebration of the life of the experimental theatre-maker Ken Campbell and an actor-musician led punk-rock version of Sophocles’ Electra, to two world premieres: Kevin Armento’s exploration of Hillary Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Grotty, Izzy Tennyson’s dark drama exploring this city’s lesbian subculture from Damsel Productions, we have lined up a Spring season that demonstrates the full breadth of artists and their work that has found a home at The Bunker since we opened.

The Bunker’s Spring Season 2018 is as follows:
Ken (The Bunker in association with Hampstead Theatre)
Wednesday 24th January – Saturday 24th February
Press Night: Monday 29th January, 7:30pm
1978, London. A 23 year old aspiring playwright in a rundown flat-share off the North End Road is wrestling with his masterpiece for the Royal Court. The house phone rings, the young man answers… a call for the person who used to occupy his room, recently moved to Amsterdam. But even once this information is imparted, the man at the other end refuses to hang up. His name is Ken. And
he’s about to change the young man’s life forever… Directed by Lisa Spirling, Artistic Director of Theatre 503, Ken is the retelling of an extraordinary friendship from beginning to end, replete with wickedly funny anecdotes, magnificent hoaxes, and general chaotic lunacy – all infused with the spirit of the great man… Terry Johnson and Jeremy Stockwell reprise their roles following a sell-out run at Hampstead Theatre to bring to life Ken Campbell’s wild and idiosyncratic perspective on life.

Electra (Dumbwise Theatre)
Tuesday 27th February – Saturday 24th March
Press Night: Thursday 1st March, 7:30pm
A Queen masterminds the murder of her Husband and takes the throne with her new lover. Her Daughter, Electra, grows up in the grip of a cruel regime, swearing revenge. Her Son Orestes, exiled as a boy and raised in the arms of the rebels, waits to embark on a holy mission to reclaim his country. Two decades later a twist of fate brings Brother and Sister together; united by hate but divided by faith. With the country on the brink of civil war, the most powerful family in the Kingdom are torn apart from the inside as their dark past once again becomes the present. The revolution will be televised, but are The Gods watching?

Devil With The Blue Dress (The Bunker Theatre and Desara Bosnja)
Thursday 29th March – Saturday 28th April
Press Night: Wednesday 4th April, 7:30pm
What do a First Lady, a secretary, a daughter, a confidant, and an intern all have in common? This barbed spin on a political drama conjures the five women who collided in what became known as The Lewinsky Scandal. Hillary Clinton and Monica Lewinsky find themselves centre stage in a theatrical feat that takes us through the corridors of power and behind the closed doors where the abuse of that power took place. Slyly exhuming the little blue dress that launched the biggest media circus of a generation, Devil With The Blue Dress, written by Kevin Armento and directed by Joshua McTaggart, grapples with one of the most challenging questions in American political history: How do we respond to women seeking power?

Grotty (Damsel Productions)
Tuesday 1st May – Saturday 26th May
Press Night: Thursday 3rd May, 7:30pm
Welcome to the desert. The London lesbian scene. A couple of little sad old basements that drip with sweat and piss. We sit there, listening to second-hand pulsating noise coming from some gay boy night upstairs. And it’s a Wednesday. And it’s a night called the ‘Clam Jam’. Can you imagine being straight and going to a night called the ‘Cock and Hole’? The women in black. The best tables are marked theirs by a crowd of empty prosecco bottles. They sit there in their uniformed black, a deep rich black only lots of money can buy… and they are looking at you. They are not nice girls. But this is not a nice story. Grotty is a dark, savage, and unflinching exploration of lesbian subculture in London. Written by award-winning writer Izzy Tennyson (Brute, Runts, Career Boy) and directed by Hannah Hauer-King (Dry Land, Brute, Fury), Damsel Productions presents this fierce new lesbian drama that takes no prisoners.

Mick Perrin Worldwide presents:

Slightly Fat Features: The Slightly Fat Show

Comedy. Cabaret. Chaos. Christmas. Variety for the 21^st Century

“Our critics pick the best tickets around the county over the festive period:

The internationally experienced seven-man variety troupe return for an all-new blast of

comedy, magic, music and stunts.” The Times 2017

20 – 23^rd December – Main House – Leicester Square Theatre

Forget seeking what’s cool or the next big thing – when it comes to pure and simple entertainment,

this effervescent septet are the real deal’ Chortle ««««

‘Slightly Fat’s brand of inspired silliness is a perfect pick me up’ The Times ««««

Multi award winning troupe Slightly Fat Features are the cabaret variety show you never knew you wanted but it turns out you needed. Direct from Sunday Night at the Palladium this is the silliest variety Christmas show you will ever see!

Hard to describe until you witness it live. // Not a kids show but do bring your kids. // A Pythonesque Cirque du Soliel

So fasten your seatbelts, because the multi award winning comedy troupe are back in London for six shows only with their own special brand of riotous comedy cabaret. Variety is back and it’s Slightly Fat.

Witness ….astonishing physical skills … Delight … in orchestrated mayhem … Be astounded … by a show unashamedly stuffed with wondrous antics including:

Knife Throwing

Slapdancing

Pint Balancing

Spoon Flinging

Incredible live music,

Circus tricksters and top turns

AND

Flaming toothbrushes // superb sword fighting // multiple crying rabbits!!

Slightly Fat Features are the pinnacle of old school variety – updated for the 21^st century and single-handedly rescuing the genre and crash landing into theatres across the globe. Shows performed by a stupefying septuplet of world-class entertainers who will leave your belly aching and demanding seconds:

“Sublime and Ridiculous” «««« This Is Cabaret

Slightly Fat Features were awarded the ‘Prix Coup De Coeur’ at the Just For Laughs Festival (Montreal),‘ Best Show’ at the Great Yorkshire Fringe (York) and have countless standing ovations under their (buckling) belts from venues across the UK including at The Roundhouse (London), Tobacco Factory (Bristol) and at The Pleasance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

LEICESTER SQUARE THEATRE, LONDON

20^th December, 7:00pm

21^st December, 7:00pm

22^nd December ,  4:00pm & 7:00pm

23^rd December, 4:00pm & 7:00pm

Tickets  £15.00

FAMILY TICKET £45

https://leicestersquaretheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873572740

020 7734 2222

2018 UK TOUR ANNOUNCED FOR

THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED PRODUCTION OF

BIRDSONG

ADAPTED BY RACHEL WAGSTAFF

FROM THE SEBASTIAN FAULKS NOVEL

Marking the centenary of the end of the First World War, Rachel Wagstaff’s highly acclaimed adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’s best-selling novel BIRDSONG embarks on its final UK tour, opening at Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds on 31 January 2018 and continuing until 17 July 2018.

The cast will be headed by Tom Kay and Madeleine Knight as Stephen Wraysford and Isabelle Azaire. Tom Kay, appeared to great acclaim in a recent production of Journey’s End, performed on a First World War battlefield at Ypres.  Madeleine Knight’s television and film credits include Poldark and Florence Foster Jenkins.  Also in the cast are Olivia Bernstone, Alice Brittain, Alfie Browne-Sykes (recently seen as Jason Roscoe in Channel 4’s Hollyoaks), Martin Carroll, Riley Carter-Millington (Kyle Slater in EastEnders) James Findlay (winner of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award 2010), Liz Garland, Jeffrey Harmer and Simon Lloyd.  Further casting to be announced.

BIRDSONG tells a mesmerising story of love and courage, before and during the war. In pre-war France, a young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, embarks on a passionate and dangerous affair with the beautiful Isabelle Azaire that turns their worlds upside down.  As the war breaks out, Stephen must lead his men through the carnage of the Battle of the Somme and through the sprawling tunnels that lie deep underground.  Faced with the unprecedented horror of the war, Stephen clings to the memory of Isabelle and the idyll of his former life as his world explodes around him.

The critically acclaimed production, seen by over 200,000 people, has received 4- and 5-star reviews, with audiences calling the show ‘simply stunning’.

Sebastian Faulks said, “This is the fourth and final tour of Rachel Wagstaff’s adaptation of my novel and, as it coincides with the centenary of the Armistice in 1918, it comes with an additional air of celebration. The play has had a long life since its first incarnation in the West End in 2010 and audiences have always been warm and appreciative. I very much hope that this finale will be a glorious one.’’ 

Rachel Wagstaff is currently co-writing two screenplays with Sebastian Faulks, one for Eleventh Hour Productions, and one for Trademark Films with Bob & Co.  Flowers For Mrs Harris, a new musical written by Rachel and Richard Taylor, staged at the Crucible, Sheffield, received five-star reviews and won the UK Theatre Award for Best Musical Production 2016.  In the same year, Only The Brave, for which she wrote the book, opened at the Wales Millennium Centre.  Rachel adapted Sebastian Faulks’s novel, The Girl at the Lion d’Or, for Radio Four (Woman’s Hour), and When I Lost You, an Afternoon Play for Radio Four, co-written with Duncan Abel.  In development are stage plays with The Original Theatre Company and Wales Millennium Centre, and an original Sherlock Holmes stage play, co-written with Duncan Abel, for Tony Marion Productions.

Sebastian Faulks’s latest novel, Where My Heart Used To Beat, is published by Hutchinson.

BIRDSONG is directed by Alastair Whatley with Charlotte Peters, with set design by Victoria Spearing, lighting by Alex Wardle for Charcoalblue and sound by Dom Bilkey.

BIRDSONG is produced on tour by Anne-Marie Woodley and Jon Woodley for Birdsong Productions Ltd in association with The Original Theatre Company.

BIRDSONG is suitable for ages 12+.

2018 TOUR SCHEDULE

31 January – 3 February          Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds                              01284 769505

                                                 www.theatreroyal.org              

6 – 10 February                       Crewe Lyceum Theatre                                              01270 368242                                                                                                         www.crewelyceum.co.uk         

13 – 17 February                     West Yorkshire Playhouse                                        0113 213 7700

                                                www.wyp,co.uk                                                           

19 – 24 February                     Cheltenham Everyman                                              01242 572573

                                                www.everymantheatre.org.uk

6 – 10 March                           New Brighton Floral Pavilion                                    0151 666 0000

                                                www.floralpavilion.com

12 – 17 March                         New Victoria Theatre Woking                                   0844 871 7645

                                                www.atgtickets.com/new-victoria-theatre

20 – 24 March                         Wyvern Theatre Swindon                                          01793 524481

                                                www.swindontheatres.co.uk

26 – 31 Mar                             Theatre Royal Windsor                                             01753 853888

                                                www.theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk                                              

3 – 7 April                                The Lowry Salford                                                     0843 208 6000

                                                www.thelowry.com

17 – 21 April                            Nuffield Southampton Theatres                              023 8067 1771

                                                www.nstheatres.co.uk

23 – 28 April                            The Capitol Horsham                                                01403 750220

                                                www.thecapitolhorsham.com                                       

1 – 5 May                                Churchill Theatre Bromley                                        020 3285 6000

                                                www.churchilltheatre.co.uk

8 – 12 May                              King’s Theatre Edinburgh                                         0131 529 6000

                                                www.edtheatres.com/kings                                          On sale soon

14 – 19 May                             Cambridge Arts Theatre                                            01223 503333

                                                www.cambridgeartstheatre.com

21 – 26 May                             Gala Theatre Durham                                                03000 266 600

                                                www.galadurham.co.uk

29 May – 2 June                      Theatre Royal Glasgow                                             0844 871 7647

                                                www.atgtickets.com/venues/theatre-royal-glasgow      On sale soon

5 – 9 June                               York Theatre Royal                                                     01904 623568

                                                www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk                                         On sale soon

11 – 16 June                           Derby Theatre                                                             01332 593959

                                                www.derbytheatre.co.uk                                              On sale soon

18 – 23 June                           New Alexandra Theatre Birmingham                       0844 871 3011

                                                www.atgtickets.com/birmingham

25 June                                   Malvern Theatres                                                       01684 892277

                                                www.malvern-theatres.co.uk                                        On sale soon

2 – 7 July                                 Assembly Hall Theatre Tunbridge Wells                 01892 530613

                                                www.assemblyhalltheatre.co.uk

10 – 17 July                             Bristol Old Vic                                                            0117 987 7877

                                                www.bristololdvic.org.uk                                              On sale soon

Grand Opera House York – until Saturday 2nd December.  Reviewed by Michelle Richardson

4****

Based on the 1983 film Flashdance, The Grand Opera House in York presents Flashdance The Musical in all its leg warmer and neon glory, as part of its UK tour.

Set in Pittsburgh, Alex Owens (Strictly Come Dancing’s Joanne Clifton) is an apprentice welder, the best they have ever had, but she dreams of a better life and dreams of dancing. A new recruit starts at the factory who takes a shine to Alex, but he turns out to be the owner’s son Nick Hurley (Ben Adams, formerly of the 1990’s group A1), who is there to make layoffs.

To make ends meet Alex has another job, dancing in Harry’s club, but this is so far removed from where she wants to be. Harry is struggling to keep going with the seedy club down the street stealing all the punters and trying to entice all his dancers, who are all adamant that they are staying put. Alex’s friend Gloria, at a low point, is seduced away by the creepy club owner CC, with promises of fame and fortune, which unfortunately doesn’t materialise and descends into drugs and stripping, unbeknownst to her. Oblivious to what is happening to her friend Alex plucks up the courage to apply for a place in the Shipley Dance Academy, where Nick is determined to give her a boost, but she is not interested, she wants to do it all on her own.

Clifton is certainly the all-round performer, singing, dancing and acting, with some impressive abs, maybe lacking the grit of Jennifer Beals portrayal in the movie, but she still delivers. I do have a small gripe I was distracted by her black eye makeup, just too much, silly I know but I could not get it out of my head. Adams certainly entertains us with his singing, as he should, as well as his acting, with a great American accent, and he even had a few dance moves thrown in, especially at the end with the cartwheel. They had great chemistry together which showed in their duets of Here and Now and Hang On. They were both the stars of the show and worthy of their billing. The support cast was very strong, both in their acting, singing and dancing, a credit to the whole show.

The staging was quite simple, but very effective, with the use of LED screens and staircases. The cast were utilised in moving the set to create the steelworks, bar, club and dance studio to great effect. The costumes were full on 80’s, spandex, neons and leg warmers galore.

There were a few sound issues with the music at times drowning out the vocals, this improved during the second half. The plot is a bit wishy washy, and rushed but that doesn’t really matter, no-one is really there for the plot. It’s all about the dancing, the music and the story of hopes and dreams, a step out of reality.

Overall this was a great fun production with fantastic song and dance routines. All the dancers were in incredible shape and showed such athletic skill, with the high kicks and so much energy, it made me tired just watching. A crowd pleasing show that had everyone up on their feet for an extended finale. It was also great to see so many bums on seats in the theatre, proving that the 80’s still rock.