Strictly Ballroom is the love story between championship ballroom dancer Scott Hastings breaking all the rules to follow his heart to dance his way, losing his partner en route and Fran an awkward junior dancer who he teaches and takes through to compete in the Pan Pacific Championship but in his way and together they find love and break down the old school of the Dance Federation.
The subtitle for this musical should be The Will Young Show as he sings all of the popular musical numbers so it will no doubt please his legions of fans from his pop star days. Of course he also recreated the role of the Emcee in ‘Cabaret’ recently and in fact, his role in Strictly has been created as an Emcee/Band leader who hardly leaves the stage.
It’s a great shame that Zizi Strallen (Mary Poppins, Follies, Cats, Dirty Dancing, Hairspray, and Chicago) and Jonny Labey (Eastenders, Dance, Dance, Dance) both incredible dancers only get to sing about 2 lines of a song in the second act given that both can sing. In the case of Ms. Strallen very much known for her performances in West End musicals, a great loss to her many fans plus it would have broken the monotony and lifted the mood of the show. Their roles as Scott Hastings the rebel ballroom dancer insisting on dancing his own steps in the championships and Fran as the amateur dancer who becomes his partner, prove that they are the true stars of this show.
Wonderful costumes by 4-time Oscar winner Catherine Martin superbly depicting the glamour and tack of the ballroom world, orchestrations by Simon Hale are very powerful and accompany the dance routines with as much excitement as the dancers themselves, Act 1 finale a good example of this and a special mention to the talent of Fernando Mira in a powerful Paso Doble to Bizet’s Habanera.
Drew McOnie is a wonderful choreographer and has produced exciting routines for the dancers…..however, maneuvering a very cluttered stage set must be a challenge for them. There seem to be moments that make you think of other shows in particular dancers strolling in the background to a scene (Follies) Emcee talking to the audience (Cabaret) and the West Side Story finale to the first half.
However this will prove to be a big hit with fans of the iconic film, Mr. Young’s fans and all the followers of the TV series Strictly Come Dancing and Ballroom dance in general.
Strictly Ballroom, directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie, book by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce and based on the 1992 well-loved original film of the same name by Baz Luhrmann, received its British premiere on 30 November 2016 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. The West End production opened at the Piccadilly Theatre on 24 April 2018,
☆☆☆ Review by Peter Harrington, Contributing Editor 