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Synopsis Based on the Paramount Pictures Film by Tom Hedley. Set in Pittsburgh, USA, Flashdance tells the story of 18 year old Alex, a welder by day and 'flashdancer' by night, whose dream is to obtain a place at the prestigious Shipley Academy. This musical about holding on to your dreams and love against all the odds features an iconic score including Maniac, Manhunt, Gloria, I Love Rock and Roll and the Academy award-winning title track Flashdance -What a Feeling.
Victoria Hamilton-Barritt in Flashdance The Musical
Date: 15 October 2010
Flashdance The Musical, the latest in a long line of screen-to-stage musicals to hit the West End, has high-kicked its way into the Shaftesbury Theatre (recent home of Hairspray), where it opened last night (14 October 2010, previews from 27 September).
The stage show, based on blockbuster 1983 movie, premiered at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in July 2008 prior to a national tour. It features music by Robbie Roth, lyrics Robert Cary and book by Cary and Tom Hedley.
The iconic film starred Jennifer Beals as Alex Owens, an 18-year-old Pittsburgh welder and exotic dancer who dreams of winning a place at a prestigious dance school and becoming a professional ballet dancer. The score features the songs “Maniac” and “Flashdance… What a Feeling” (which won an Academy Award for Best Song) - it also launched a fashion frenzy for torn sweatshirts.
On stage, Alex is played by Victoria Hamilton-Barritt alongside Busted’s Matt Willis, making his West End and professional theatrical debut, as love interest Nick. It’s directed by Nikolai Foster and choreographed by musical theatre veteran and former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com ★★★★ - "(Flashdance) has transformed an okay movie with a few songs into a pulsating dance show with fourteen new numbers, a tougher narrative, and a well sustained metaphor of the Pittsburgh steel mill as a glorified dance floor … Above all, there is a wonderful central performance by unknown Victoria Hamilton-Barritt as Alex the welder that proclaims a new star is born. Nikolai Foster’s production, designed by Morgan Large, is both exciting and stunningly efficient, with plenty of grime and welders’ sparks, sliding factory doors and brilliant choreography by Arlene Phillips … Phillips’ hand-picked dancers burn up the stage in a series of corporate body-popping moves and modern jazz and dance sequences … it’s a fantastic way of forging a link between the factory and the footlights and, for my money, totally eclipses the two “urban” musicals Flashdance prophesies, The Full Monty and Billy Elliot … The show’s fresh as masonry paint, a full-on power blast, striking sparks, and industrial action, in all directions."
Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail ★★★ - "This musical, based on the 1983 Hollywood film, is not only derivative but also manipulative, hackneyed, sexist, noisy - and shameless good fun … The plot - plot! - is one of those lowering-of-protective-hackles efforts that may have diabetics reaching for their medicine. Sugary … All this is eminently forgettable and formulaic. Not so the show’s star, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, who plays Alex. What a belter! A beaver’s cheekbones, a gymnast’s physique, a big voice, bigger hair, and enough energy to fuel a Lucozade factory … Alex’s love interest, Nick, is played by Matt Willis of the pop group Busted. He is not the world’s most handsome blade but he has a tidy voice. The production also has some ace choreography by Arlene Phillips and so much movement - whizzing props, hurtling walls, steel-mill sparks - that one’s eye is constantly playing catch-up … Apart from the appallingly trite storyline, this show is much better than it probably need be.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian ★★★ - "In Billy Elliot a miner's son makes it to the Royal Ballet School. And now in Flashdance, based on the 1983 Adrian Lyne movie, we see a female apprentice welder, Alex, getting a place at Pittsburgh's top dance academy. I enjoyed watching her journey and, thanks to Arlene Phillips' choreography and Nikolai Foster's direction, the show brims with physical energy and is full of visual invention. All the same, there are aspects of this blue-collar Cinderella story that don't quite add up … Ultimately, like virtually all American musicals, it becomes a hymn to individualism as proved by lyrics on the lines of: ‘You're only as great as the world you create’ … Phillips' dazzling choreography embraces a wide variety of styles … Foster also directs with great elan giving Robbie Roth's songs, 14 of them specially written for the show, a variety of settings and making good use of split stages, animation and video projections."
Dominic Maxwell in The Times ★★ - "The bulk of the songs, though, are new tunes, by Robbie Roth and Robert Cary. It’s fun to hear them ape the clattery production values of 1983, but they’re functional rather than memorable ... Hamilton-Barritt has to carry the show. She conveys the character’s East Coast flintiness as well as her litheness. But charm is in short supply. Willis, formerly of Busted, is likeable enough, even if the only sparks flying on stage come from the steelworkers’ cutting tools. And Twinnielee Moore, Charlotte Harwood and Hannah Levane become an effective sisterly chorus as Alex’s fellow downtrodden dancers, belting out the title track and Gloria ... The squad of body-poppers do some good work, but the ending is spoilt when they gatecrash Alex’s big dance. There, for once, you want to keep close to the film."
Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard ★★★ - "In Nikolai Foster’s deft production, with an ingeniously adaptable design by Morgan Large, we’re deep in Eighties revivalism. Yet the show is modern too, as Arlene Phillips’s tight choreography introduces elements of the brilliantly robotic street dance ... It’s a formulaic setup that permits a sentimental celebration of individualism and working-class ambition ... There are 14 new tunes by Robbie Roth, which parade an unsophisticated yet relentlessly efficient form of rock-inflected pop ... As Alex, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt radiates star quality. She’s likeable and sassy, an immensely confident dancer and versatile singer. Also impressive are Hannah Levane and Twinnielee Moore as her fellow club performers, while Charlotte Harwood relishes her role as Gloria ... Ultimately, Flashdance, for all its dazzle, lacks a real imaginative freshness ... Yet it’s a raunchy, crowd-pleasing spectacle which busily delivers both the things its title so brazenly promises."
In a programme note, writer Tom Hedley recounts how Bob Fosse turned down the invitation to make his 1985 Flashdance movie (British director Adrian Lyne took up the challenge) with the suggestion that Hedley’s script, with work, “might make a hell of a Broadway show.”
Well, Hedley may be half way there with this invigorating London premiere, which has transformed an okay movie with a few songs into a pulsating dance show with fourteen new numbers, a tougher narrative, and a well sustained metaphor of the Pittsburgh steel mill as a glorified dance floor.
Above all, there is a wonderful central performance by unknown Victoria Hamilton-Barritt as Alex the welder that proclaims a new star is born. Nikolai Foster’s production, designed by Morgan Large, is both exciting and stunningly efficient, with plenty of grime and welders’ sparks, sliding factory doors and brilliant choreography by Arlene Phillips.
Alex’s drive to go to ballet school becomes a lesser motivation than her wider campaign for loving recognition of what she does best. Buttressed by the attention of the boss’s nephew at work (Matt Willis) and the well-meaning interference of her mother (Sarah Ingram) in the dry-cleaners, Alex cuts a swathe through seedy clubs and MTV and underworld diversions with her girlfriends to that ultimate make or break audition.
On the way, Phillips’ hand-picked dancers burn up the stage in a series of corporate body-popping moves and modern jazz and dance sequences that summarise her work from Hot Gossip right through Matador and Grease to Starlight Express and beyond; it’s a fantastic way of forging a link between the factory and the footlights and, for my money, totally eclipses the two “urban” musicals Flashdance prophesies, The Full Monty and Billy Elliot.
The nightmare ballet, too, is a throwback to the Hollywood “dream” sequences of the 1940s, but is fully integrated with the storyline and the new robotic, diagrammatic dance styles. The new songs by Robbie Roth and Robert Cary include a few good ballads and maintain the steely, heavy metal edge, while the old favourites – “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”, “Maniac,” “Gloria” and “What a Feeling” – speak directly to an audience primed on the movie and The X-Factor.
So, this is definitely 1980s retro, a phase we’re going through, whether you like it or not. But the cleverness of Flashdance the musical is to make considerable theatrical virtue out of what might easily have looked tacky and derivative. The show’s fresh as masonry paint, a full-on power blast, striking sparks, and industrial action, in all directions.
Absolutely amazing! Loved the show and couldn't tear my eyes away throughout. Great singers and dancers. The set changes are crazily quick! Could watch over and over - Steph
01 Dec 10
Saw it yesterday evening.... Simply the loveliest tuesday i have had in weeks. fun and flamboyant and fresh! - Anton
27 Oct 10
Oh Lorraine J lighten up!
everyone else go and see this. I came dowm from Nottingham, and stayed an extra day so I could go again.
Loved the film, and thought the show was much stronger, and had much more of an emotional punch... Really enjoyed the new music, and just after two listens were humming them all the way home.
Amazing dancers taking a range of styles, amazing set that zipped all over place, some of the best voices I've ever heard...And as for the water, they had much more than the film.....which makes it an improvement in my eyes. - S Ryding
26 Oct 10
When it opens this man comes on stage and dances like a cross between a maniac and god. He is so fluid and graceful you can tell from that moment you are in for a treat. an incredible dance show from start to finish, you will be more then surprised to find that the singing is not bad but in fact quite good. A really fun treat to go and see. - Laura S.
24 Oct 10
I was so emotionally affected by Flashdance The Musical that I went to see it at the Shaftesbury Theatre once more. What became clear to me is this Flashdance is a break-through musical, so exciting and so moving it is a clear candidate for being the first true twenty-first century stage musical. It's highly finessed use of pure drama and stunning music places it into a category of it's own. Far superior to the other musicals out there today. Bravo! It deserves every one of it's five stars - Jackson
22 Oct 10
Flashdance is an amazing spectacle of dance set to new material and some familiar 80s classics. I haven't seen so much dancing on stage since "42nd Street". I think the thing to remember is that this is a new piece of work based on an old film. It is not simply the film on stage; it pushes forward, which is why I think some people are a little confused by it. Every professional reviewer had a different take on the "dream" sequence, for example. Some liked it; others not. It dares to be different, which I think is a strength. Look, there's a ton of energy on stage and bottom line is it's thoroughly entertaining. Hats off to the actors. - Paul B.
21 Oct 10
I find it very suspicious that the 5 star comments about this show, NEVER go into detail as to why they think that the show deserves 5 stars. 5 stars means SUPERB. This is a big call to say that about this show, when there are so many obvious problems with it. The two major scenes from the movie I feel were terrible. The dribble of water to close the 1st act is one of the most embarrassing examples of stagecraft on the West End stage right now. Production team, please go to Wicked, Lion King, Phantom, Priscilla or War Horse to gauge what audiences expect for their money. Of course set doesn't equal brilliant show, but I expect a show like Flashdance to deliver 1st rate staging. - Lorraine J
20 Oct 10
loved it start to finish. FAb cast, huge energy and the music all makes for a great night out! - lauralee s.
20 Oct 10
There were a few minutes of good choreography in the second half depicting the range of emotions experienced by the central character. Otherwise the rest of the show's dancing can be summarised in two words: rigor mortis. I tried to get into the storyline but kept falling asleep. - Chris
18 Oct 10
It seems that some of the people commenting here are wanting to switch off their brains and purely get entertained. Fortunately for the rest of us Flashdance is quite an intelligent take on a show of this genre. Why shouldn't a character die? Why shouldn't contemporary dancers help the story/locations segue into one another? If theatre needs to survive then it should appeal to everyone- this include the streetwise kids of today...Hats off to the creative team for trying something different and on this occasion succeeding on all counts. - Russell P West
The first theatre to open in Shaftesbury Avenue on 20 Oct 1888. The original theatre was destroyed by bombs in 1941. A second theatre opened 26 Dec 1911 (originally the Prince's), badly damaged in 1940/41. Changed name to Shaftesbury in 1963. Housed the famous Hair performances in 1968. 1404 seats. Member of the Society of London Theatre.
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