Burlesque review – West End musical is a frivolous and flimsy frolic

A long and winding road has brought Burlesque to the West End. After try-out runs in Manchester and Glasgow last year, not reviewed by critics, the musical version of the hit 2010 film had a creative overhaul: director and choreographer Nick Winston was jettisoned in favour of co-composer / songwriter and star Todrick Hall, now wearing as many hats on the creative side as he does on stage as the opulent fashionista Sean. The preparations for the West End were no less straightforward – Equity were called in to investigate practices, creative team members exited the show and rumours swirled around the state of costumes in the run-up to first previews.

It’s not the job of a critic to review whatever took place before a production has its opening night. In short, therefore, the most straightforward verdict is that whatever disquiet may have come before, Burlesque is now a perfectly fine musical. An entirely average, run-of-the-mill, engaging evening.

We follow one Ali Rose, a small-town Iowa singer (“the voice of Beyoncé in the body of Taylor Swift”) in search for her birth mother and a chance of making it big. Taking the mid-afternoon Greyhound heading to the Big Apple’s Port Authority Bus Terminal, she finds herself surrounded by the bright city lights and drawn to a burlesque club, led by the firebrand Tess, in dire need of a pick-me-up while entangled in a fight for its future.

In a similar fashion to the Bring It On musical, a lot of the original film’s plot has been jettisoned: the action is moved from Los Angeles to New York, a very protracted plot about parental angst is added and some newfangled concern about financial dire straits is forced onto the top. There’s pertinence, for sure – with alternative performance spaces across the UK and the US lost to redevelopment or rising costs – an easy example being the fight to save the legendary Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. Review continues below. 

It’s not helped by Steven Antin’s baggy storyline. A show like Burlesque isn’t meant to live or die by its plotting, which is why it’s so frustrating that there’s so much of it in between the big, heavyweight, crowdpleaser numbers. A sharpie and a few hours of tough love could easily shave 20 minutes off the show and leave little worse for wear. Antin, who also wrote and directed the original film, seems so focused on meticulously mapping out every plot detail in painstaking detail right the way until it matters most – with the second half of act two veering close to being a slight mess.

Things really do come to life during Hall’s choreo-heavy moments. Act two opener “Express”, when Ali finds her feet in the club, or Tess’ big 11 o’clock number, sufficiently bring the house down. Other stand-out passages come with the “Wagon Wheel Watusi” or “Tough Lover”, while there’s some surprisingly deft stagecraft in “Ammo”, delivered by pseudo villain Vince (a slimy George Maguire). Less successful is Aguilera’s award-nominated tune “Bound to You”, performed over a protracted and awkward sex scene that only gains power when it transforms into a sultry cabaret number.

Where Burlesque succeeds is in its casting: Jess Folley, also co-composer on a selection of tracks, is a star-in-the-making as Ali: effortlessly blasting through the film’s famed staples in a scintillating mix of dance and vocal skill. Orfeh‘s Tess, making her West End debut after years as a Broadway legend, has a steady magnetism that sells her status as a club owner willing to battle agains the odds for her establishment. Hall’s Sean (he also plays a few other characters) certainly gets a lot of stage time as a pseudo-Emcee figure, but never derails the overall plotting. Stellar supporting turns come from Asha Parker-Wallace as Nikki and Paul Jacob French‘s Jackson.

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Sets and costumes (despite the controversies), never look cheap or ineffective. Marco Marco’s work across the 165-minute show is suitably lavish and eye-catching, and gives each member of the Burlesque ensemble their own sense of clear-cut identity and verve. Nate Bertone’s sets successfully hops between different locations with relative speed, bringing a perfect blend of seediness and well-worn care to Tess’ club. One snag is a largely unnecessary faux proscenium – chipping away at the already narrow Savoy stage and making it all too squashed and cramped. Rory Beaton’s lighting design, largely dynamic, occasionally bombards the senses and detracts from what’s happening on stage by casting roaming lights out into the auditorium.

It’s worth admitting the audience for the press preview (not the vocally effusive friends and family that attend on opening night) were loving it all. For hen-dos looking for a hoot, or an office looking for an excellent team outing, neck a few rosés and head to Burlesque – it will leave you whooping with glee. Some powerhouse performances, popping choreography and a select few one-liners bring the joy in perfectly adequate measures.

But it’s a show broadly lacking in flare or heart – chugging through the motions like a well-oiled machine without the sweaty, grainy authenticity that made the film so memorable. There’s also little here that feels original – you get some strangely specific references to Jamie Lloyd’s production of Sunset Boulevard, which ran at the same theatre two years ago, while one number is staged like a strange mix between Moulin Rouge!‘s “The Sparkling Diamond” and Matilda‘s “School Song”. Special mention does, however, have to go to Hall’s excellent improvised line about Coldplay and affairs.

I often think about Gabrielle Union’s famed line as Chastity in 10 Things I Hate About You: “I know you can be underwhelmed, and you can be overwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?”. Someone has finally found her an answer – Burlesque the Musical in the West End.