Theatre News

Strictly Team’s Midnight Tango Moves to West End

Midnight Tango – which stars Strictly Come Dancing dancers Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace and is co-produced by former Strictly judge Arlene Phillips – will transfer to the West End in the new year. The production, currently on tour, will have a limited season at the Aldwych Theatre from 20 January to 31 March 2012.

Set in a late-night bar in downtown Buenos Aires, Midnight Tango and tells through dance a story of “danger and excitement, joy and jealousy, pain and passion”. It’s created and choreographed by Simone and Cacace, both Italian, who are joined on stage by a company of ten other tango dancers.

Midnight Tango launched a 13-week nationwide tour from Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre on 6 April 2011, before continuing to Oxford, Salford, Bradford, Sheffield, Woking, Nottingham, Birmingham, Plymouth, Sunderland, Milton Keynes, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow, where it concludes on 30 July.

A leading choreographer herself and former member of Hot Gossip, Arlene Phillips was controversially dropped as a judge from TV’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2009 in favour by the much younger Alesha Dixon. Her many West End credits include Flashdance, The Wizard of Oz, Starlight Express, Grease and Saturday Night Fever. She’s producing Midnight Tango with Adam Spiegel.

Commenting on the transfer, Phillips said: “I’m thrilled with how well the show has been received around the country, and sell-out shows and standing ovations are every producer’s dream. Vincent and Flavia in Midnight Tango are a must-see, and I hope the show’s arrival into the West End is just as successful.”

The couple added: “We are so incredibly pleased at how Midnight Tango has been received and appreciated by our audiences. It’s an absolute thrill that we are taking the show to the West End. We sincerely hope to continue giving pleasure and making our audiences smile and cry with our show.”

Midnight Tango is directed by Karen Bruce, designed by Morgan Large and lit by James Whiteside. Live music is provided by Tango Siempre, featuring vocalist Guillermo Rozenthuler.