Despite a flimsy plot, our reviewer says this new musical of the classic film boasts one sparkling tap number after another.
With the new production of Top Hat at Chichester Festival theatre, Kathleen Marshall has a tough act to follow – herself. The director and choreographer steered a stellar revival of Anything Goes to two summer seasons at the Barbican and a UK tour, and Top Hat pales in comparison.
Blame the feebler story, which could be scribbled on the back of a cocktail napkin. Based on the 1935 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film, it’s about a boy (dancer Jerry Travers) who meets an annoying girl (model Dale Travers) when he practices his tap moves in the hotel room above hers. They spar and spat in London and Venice in a tale of thwarted romance and mistaken identities before the obligatory happy ending.
America’s Phillip Attmore has been whisked, like Jerry, across the pond to play the lead role. He sure has the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire but lacks the charm that Tom Chambers brought to it when the musical premiered over here in 2011. And while Lucy St Louis has a lovely jazzy voice she’s no Rogers in the hoofing department.
Still, the show offers plenty of pleasures. Chief among them is Sally Ann Triplett as the no-nonsense Madge Hardwick, who turns up at the start of act two to liven things up and gets one zinger after another – all of which she lands, whereas some of the other characters’ lines fizzle through rushed delivery.
Clive Carter is just as funny as Madge’s bumbling producer husband Horace. And James Clyde is scene-stealingly hilarious as Horace’s valet Bates, who in his droll disapproval is a lot like John Gielgud in the Arthur films and who dresses up in a series of outrageous disguises when his boss engages him in subterfuge.
Then there’s the sublime Irving Berlin score, which features the likes of Top Hat, White Tie and Tails, Puttin’ on the Ritz, Isn’t This a Lovely Day (To Be Caught in the Rain) and Let’s Face the Music and Dance.
And when the cast does indeed face the music and dance the show really comes alive, as Marshall choreographs one sparkling tap number after another.
There’s no more glorious a sound in musical theatre than that of dancers tapping in perfect unison, and the ensemble excels here – never putting a foot wrong despite an elevated centre-stage platform that could be perilous to untrained feet.
After Top Hat finishes puttin’ on the ritz at Chichester this summer, the show is off on a UK tour when, flimsy plot notwithstanding, it should prove the perfect cure for the winter blues.
Top Hat is at Chichester Festival Theatre until 6 September. It then tours the UK from 18 September.
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