Flashdance the Musical - Oxford

Reviewed By: Henley Standard Reporter

What a Feeling, the title song for Flashdance, is the only way to describe an evening at the New Theatre, Oxford.

I was transported back to my late teens and the memory of leg warmers, as I waited for the opening scene, accompanied by my 14-year-old daughter and my 60-something mum, proof that it can, indeed, span the generations.

Despite celebrating its silver anniversary this year, the stage production is as fresh and contemporary as the film was at it’s release in 1983. And running it over the Christmas period is inspired. While other theatres are awash with festive pantos, it provides a positive alternative for those whose children believe they are far too grown up for the “look behind you” scenario.

The heroine of Flashdance, Alex, superbly played by Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, is a young woman who works by day as a welder but whose main joy in life is dancing. She moonlights as a dancer in a local nightclub, though her great ambition in life is to become a ballet dancer. The film tells the story of how she achieves that ambition, as well as her romance with steel mill boss Nick Hurley (Noel Sullivan).

Victoria more than lives up to Jennifer Beales’ original performance with her acting, singing and dancing all as strong as each other, as well as having an uncanny resemblance to the latter at times.

Ably supported by Ruthie Stephens, Djalenga Scott and Carryl Thomas as the dancers sharing her nightclub duties, the quartet certainly proved a welcome distraction for the few men in the audience who had been dragged along by their teenage daughters.

Noel Sullivan of ITV’s Popstars creation, Here’say was a revelation. No more the nervous teenager thrust into the limelight through a reality show, he played Nick Hurley with assurance and maturity and a singing voice that certainly held its own.

Bernie Nolan put in a believeable and humorous performance as Hannah, Alex’s mum, a role created specifically for the stage show while Bruno Langley (Todd Grimshaw from Coronation Street) proved there is life after a soap.

While the main characters were well performed, the star of the show has to be the choreography. While Arlene Phillips is today widely recognised for her judging abilities on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, she adds this show to an impressive biography.

The routines certainly lived up to her time with dance troupe Hot Gossip, interpreted from the original but not slavishly sticking to an exact copy, while the ensemble cast were at times almost at risk of steeling the limelight, such was their amazing breakdancing, body popping and street dance.

For me there are three iconic moments in the film. The first was as Alex rehearses and gets ever more frantic with her moves, a scene in the play that was very reminiscent of the film. Despite coming early in the film, the second came at the end of the first act as she dances under a shower of water (I wondered how they would re-create that for the stage).

The third moment, like in the production, had to be left to the end of this review. After recovering from the fact that her boyfriend “pulled some strings” to get her an audition at a prestigious dance school, she rocks up with all the assurance only a teenager could muster.

After an initial false start, she launches into her routine made famous first by Jennifer Beales and later by Geri Halliwell for her It’s Raining Men single. The high energy ending is what fans have been waiting for throughout the production — and it does not disappoint.

Despite its predictable ending, the star of the show truly is the dancing — and I defy anyone leaving the theatre to go home without humming the theme tune.

© Henley Standard, 29/12/08

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