Charlotte Gooch and Alan Burkitt in Top Hat at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London and touring. Picture: Roy Tan
Top Hat plays at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London until 23 August, before continuing its tour until July 2015.
Triple Olivier Award-winner Top Hat is old hat in the nicest possible way – thrilling dancing, glitz and glamour, designer frocks, corny jokes, all ‘Cheek to Cheek’ with Irving Berlin’s ageless words and music in a nostalgic, easy-watching piece of nonsense that’s the perfect antidote to the grim realities of today’s world.
It’s almost 80 years since Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers sang and danced their way into the hearts of 1930s moviegoers in that unforgettable RKO production, and here, in the touring edition of the West End hit that won Best New Musical of 2013, Alan Burkitt and Charlotte Gooch carry on the tradition of those Hollywood icons to earn the first of many standing ovations.
They had better get used to it because the opening two weeks at Wimbledon are followed by 45 more in 24 UK and Ireland centres until this Top Hat travelling circus strikes its tent for the final time in Eastbourne next July.
Both touring leads have had experience in the London show, Gooch taking over the Dale Tremont part from Summer Strallen for three months and Burkitt understudying Gavin Lee in the Jerry Travers role, even gettting a 4pm on-the-day call-up to do the job on Lee’s Press Night.
Burkitt is Premiership class as a dancer (as befits a former All-England tap-dancing champion!) and has a singing voice that’s surprisingly similar to Astaire’s, light and serviceable; Gooch is a solid all-rounder who might not have the wow factor of Strallen but does everything very professionally.
The story is too silly to go into in detail, but the one-liners have their moments, and I liked Horace, fretting about a bit of in-flight turbulence, coming out with: “I’m fine about flying until I get to the airport and see the sign ‘Terminal’.”
Also remembered from a surprisingly witty script: Dale’s putdown to Jerry’s eternal tap-dancing: “Is there no beginning to your talent?”, “A man is incomplete until he’s married – and then he’s finished” and “When a woman gets to 40, it’s time to exchange her for two 20s.”
But the dancing’s the thing with Top Hat – and the songs, of course. Ten from Berlin’s other shows have been added to the five from the movie, which means, among others, we get the glorious ‘Puttin’ on The Ritz’ and ‘Let’s Face the Music And Dance’ as well as ‘Isn’t This a Lovely Day (To Be Caught in the Rain)?’, ‘Cheek to Cheek’ and ‘Top Hat, White Tie and Tails’.
The ever-reliable Clive Hayward plays flustered London producer Horace Hardwick again, Rebecca Thornhill, terrific recently in From Here to Eternity, does a good turn as Horace’s bewildered wife Madge – it’s a pity she doesn’t appear until Act II – Sebastien Torkia is totally over-the-top (as per script) as the narcissistic Italian dress designer and John Conroy has many of the best lines as Bates the valet.
We know the choreography is going to be splendid because Bill Deamer won an Olivier for it, ditto Jon Morrell’s costume design, while, with Hildegard Bechtler (set) and Gareth Owen (sound) also Olivier-nominated, this much-garlanded show, directed by Matthew White and adapted for the stage by him and Howard Jacques, has nothing left to prove.
Next stop Milton Keynes and now it’s just a case of getting the good folk of Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast, Southampton and all points north, south, east and west to see it without any star names to put bums on seats. Good, appreciative audience though it was the night I went, a sell-out it wasn’t. A wholesome, pure-entertainment night out for the five-times-a-year theatregoer, it’s already been a big winner and will assuredly continue to please.
Jeremy Chapman
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