Liam dragged me along to the Theatre Royal to see Spirit of the Dance, a cross-cultural burlesque with a strong Celtic twist. It may be an international smash, seen by over ten million people, but I’m afraid I wasn’t terribly impressed. The enchantment of Irish country dancing is in the regimental coordination and parade ground precision. One wrong step and the spell is broken. Sadly, there was quite a lot of wrong footing going on by the mismatched little and large chorus line. The lighting was so poor, they might as well have been barn dancing and when they got to the fake Folies Bergère routine, I’d lost the will to live; more can’t can’t than Can Can. Added to this, the score sounded like it had been run up on a Roland in a shed. I didn’t see too many people shelling out for the CD during the mercifully long interval. A stout tenor with a Jagger-swagger was rolled on now and again. Why? His voice was fine but it added nothing to the show and just got in the way. And, hasn’t Nessun Dorma rather been done to death? Norwich audiences are very forgiving but, every time he strutted on stage, you could hear the groans from the herd of grey. His face didn’t fit and neither did his baggy tux. Riverdance it ain’t.
Perking the Pansies 
You would have been better off at the ballet in the castle.
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Ah, but they fell over too 🙂
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Sounds terrible. I’ve never been to any performance of any kind where the presentation was so bad. Didn’t people want to have their money back? I would.
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Far too British to do that. We just love to moan! 😉
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Maybe the show wasn’t brilliant but your review is! Lots of fun – thanks
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Thank you.
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The poster is enough to put me off. Looks more like the spirit of prozac to me. Thanks for the heads up.
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Spirit of prozac – Now why didn’t I think of that? 🙂
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But you got a blog post out of the experience, Jack. I agree it’s a sad way to look at things but hey ho …
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You’re right. It’s all good blog fodder 😉
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. . you theatre critics never have anything good to say about anything – now you are a celeb a few more complimentary tickets and gins on the house might help!!
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It certainly would. I’m easily bought and a very cheap date 🙂
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