Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom The Musical, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until January 21 2017. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or wyp.org.uk THIS show is not to be confused with the BBC’s very British weekend TV entertainment Strictly Come Dancing.
A revised marketing and poster strategy has sensibly lain greater emphasis on Strictly Ballroom being Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom. Baz Luhrmann, as in the visionary Australian film director of such gaudy, troubled, doomed romantic dramas as William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet in 1996, Moulin Rouge! in 2001 and The Great Gatsby in 2013.
Before all those, in 1992, came Strictly Ballroom, the very Australian romantic comedy film, directed and co-written by Luhrmann that grew from cult status to an international hit.
Like fellow Aussie musical movie The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, it was rampantly ripe for a transfer to musical theatre and after making its bow in Australia, the British premiere now unfolds at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in the hands of Drew McOnie, a director and choreographer who delivers on his Olivier Award-winning pedigree.
Into the show to accompany the film’s hit songs Love Is In The Air, Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps and Time After Time come new musical numbers by the likes of David Foster, Sia Furler, Mozzela Neff-U, Linda Thompson and Luhrmann himself.
The Quarry Theatre often looks its biggest and best in the Playhouse show for the Christmas season and Soutra Gilmour’s design is no exception, combining glitz and non-glamorous Australia with a lovely flow from scene to scene that utilises a revolve to maximum effect. The smoothness of movement would surely meet with a ten from Len.
Luhrmann’s funny, furious, sometimes silly and highly camp work is a gorgeous romantic comedy, Cinderella tale and rebel with a cause story rolled into a dance drama of the kind that Bollywood loves. The rebel with a cause is Scott Hastings (Sam Lips with the Jagger hips!), a championship ballroom dancer frustrated by the strictures of obsessive mother Shirley (Tamsin Carroll, wonderfully ghastly throughout as a ballroom diva who already has reduced husband Doug [Stephen Matthews] to virtual silence).
Scott wants to defy the rules, and in particular the bent judging of Barry Fife (Julius D’ Silva) and follow his heart, find his true calling and, of course, his true love. Step out from the shadows, Fran (Gemma Sutton, she of the fabulous voice), desperate for her chance to learn to dance.
Their path will be crossed not only by Shirley and Barry, but the likes of Charlotte Gooch’s Tina Sparkle and initially Fran’s dad, Rico (Fernando Mira, from the Australian cast), whose passa doble brings the house down in show’s best dance number.
Lips and Sutton are a delight; Carroll, Mira, D’Silva and Eve Polycarpou’s Abuela are a knockout too; Catherine Martin's costumes are fab-u-lous, and the big numbers all have an impact beyond the reach of the film, especially the revelatory new arrangement of Love Is In The Air.
Strictly entre nous, you must see Strictly Ballroom and fall in love with Luhrmann’s dazzle all over again.
Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom The Musical, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until January 21 2017. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or wyp.org.uk
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