Marisha Wallace and company in West End Bares – Ruby Strippers at the Novello Theatre, London. Picture: Craig Sugden
West End Bares – Ruby Strippers was performed at the Novello Theatre, London.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Glittering shoes and friends of Dorothy took over from the legends of Camelot as David Grewrock and Mélanie Tranter, together with the amazing team behind last year’s sell-out Excalibare, chose to gave us Ruby Strippers for the second year of West End Bares at the Novello Theatre, already in its eighth edition.
Starting off with a terrific opening number, brilliantly choreographed by Ashley Nottingham to an original title song by Mark Anderson and Luke Di Somma, followed by an impressive and humorous ‘Don’t Make Me Drop a House On You’ (choreographed by the versatile Racky Plews), the programme managed, thanks to the enormous talent involved on and offstage, to say true to its Wizard of Oz/Wicked theme without ever becoming repetitive.
Other highlights were ‘Lions and Tigers and Bares, oh my!’, choreographed by the talented Chris Whittaker, and of course the finale, the work of Tom Jackson Greaves, featuring the great Marisha Wallace (alternate Effie in Dreamgirls) in a spectacular rendition of both ‘Home’ and ‘A Brand New Day’ from The Wiz.
The evening’s hosts included Graham Norton, the great Adam Garcia and Summer Strallen, along with her co-star from Young Frankenstein, Dianne Pilkington .
We all know that West End Bares is the British answer to Broadway Bares, the brainchild of famous director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell. What would be good to know is more detail about the cast and creatives involved with each number so we could appreciate the talents involved even more.
The visuals – costumes, make-up, lights and video projections – were nothing short of stunning. To quote the artistic director: “At a time when many things going on in the world seem somewhat topsy turvy, tonight gives us all an opportunity to leave that outside and celebrate everyone for who we are, what we believe in and the difference we can make by doing what we love.”
This was the best West End Bares so far and I can’t wait for the next version. In the meantime, rejoice at the return of another extraordinary MAD (Make A Difference Trust) event – West End Eurovision – on 22 April, and that’s after celebrating the 2017 A West End Christmas on 3 December at St Paul’s (The Actors’ Church).
Patrick Honoré
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