Theatre Trip: Strictly Ballroom

STRICTLY BALLROOM

Picadilly Theatre
Date: 3rd July (Tuesday), 7:30pm
Seats: Stalls Row Q 8-9

Understudies: Ivan de Freitas (Wally Strand), Christopher D Hunt (Merv)

(With Loren from work!)

So, it's taken me all year to make real hanging-outside-work-other-than-the-pub friends, but I managed it, and just in time too! When Loren, my friend from work, mentioned she wanted to see Strictly Ballroom before she heads back to Australia next week, she knew she was talking to the right person. And I could get £25 seats through the TodayTix rush app!

So after we finished work today, we headed into Piccadilly instead of heading home, and started with food. Five Guys is so delish, and it was empty enough that we could sit there and chat for ages until it was time to go to the theatre.

While our rush seats were not front row, they were pretty good. There were a few moment with restricted vision when people walked over the top of the set or were in the box, but nothing that leaning forwards couldn't fix.

The show itself was very different to what I remembered. I had seen it back in Sydney with Mum at the Lyric theatre. I do remember that it had the lead from Dance Academy and the dad was from the Essgee Pirates of Penzance (Drew Forsyth), but not much else. This version had really cool music arrangement, very Baz Luhrmann on its arrangement. Plus, they invented a new character, Wally Strand, whose role was basically to be the 'internal voices' of the characters. That meant he did a lot of the singing!

That role is usually played by Will Young, who is a big pop singer, but he was out last night and we had Ivan de Freitas step in as the understudy. He was great - it's a big sing, there's dancing and even roller skates involved. Although he did stack it on the skates - he skated to a set piece he then had to step up onto, and then he just fell! He said 'it's okay, I'm fine!', got up again, and they kept going. Nothing major!

Scott (Jonny Labey) was amazing - I have to admit to being a little bit worried when I saw he had been on EastEnders, but I needn't have worried. He clearly knew what he was doing and was a beautiful dancer. When he had to sing (2 lines) he was good too, but clearly his dancing is awesome. His accent was also one of the least bad (they all had Australian accents of varying bogan-ness, most being borderline ridiculous).

Fran (Zizi Strallen) was also great! She had really good awkwardness and comic timing, and really showed the progression of Fran, especially through the sequence where she learned the dances, as her hair and costume changed throughout the number to show the progression of her character. I've also now seen 3 of the 4 Strallen sisters (and all the main ones) - Scarlett was in the Oklahoma prom last summer, and Summer is currently in Young Frankenstein.

Tina Sparkles and Ken Railings (Charlotte Hooch and Gary Watson) were my favorites in terms of dancing. Charlotte was just all legs, so flexible and such a brilliant dancer. Gary totally had down the mad grinning and super enthusiastic dancing of Ken and he was so over the top! Even drunk he played so well. The dancing generally was excellent, it really makes me want to learn to dance and everyone was on their feet during the curtain call to dance along!

Of course, being based on a classic Australian film, there were rather a lot of Australian touches. Firstly, their accents were hilarious and bogan. So bogan, I worry that British people think we actually sound like that! I also appreciated the swearing, in a way that made it more Aussie. Mostly it was the little touches that got me, like the street lights. Just like home!

All in all, a highly enjoyable evening that will make you want to dance all the way home!!! I certainly did, if only subtly. Don't want too many strange looks on the Tube...