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Review by Peter Reed © This Is Surrey Today
The absence of Victoria Hamilton-Barrit found understudy Djarlenga Scott in the lead role of Alex Owens, on the opening night of Flashdance - The Musical at Woking this week. And an excellent job she made of her sudden promotion. With a bounce in her stride, Scott's high energy performance in both dance and song was the highlight of this new musical, currently on its world premiere UK tour.
Unfortunately the show comes off the back of the 'let's turn every feel-good dance movie into a musical' concept, which rarely lives up to expectation.
In this case, little remains of the original Eighties movie plot and characters, save the base story line of a young Pittsburg steelworker who moonlights as an exotic dancer, with dreams of getting into the prestigious Shipley Dance Academy.
Musically, What a Feeling, Maniac and Gloria, are the only remnants of the original sound track while the plot is painfully thin. That said, Robbie Roth and Robert Cary's score does present some pleasant numbers, Up In Smoke, Totally Different People and Don't Stop being among that selection.
Technically the show was very impressive, offering great sound quality and an excellent lighting plot. The base set of abstract rusts and blues proved very versatile with its suspended walkway and vertical travellers, seamlessly transforming from steel factory to home to street to night club and dance academy.
Headlining, Bernie Nolan (Hannah Owens) was outstanding, and while Noel Sullivan (Nick) provided a very natural love interest, Bruno Langley (Coronation Street star) was quite menacing as the mixed up bad boy Jimmy. In support, Ruthie Stevens (Gloria), Emily Hawgood (Jazmin) and Carryl Thomas (Keisha), were equally strong in both song and dance as Alex's fellow dancemates.
While the vocals were superb throughout under the direction of Dave Rose, it was Arlene Phillips' choreography which had its peaks and troughs. Unquestionably, the ensemble gave some highly charged dance displays, but as the nature of street dance relies on both individualism and improvisation, the collective of these routines was somewhat messy. Far more pleasing to the eye were the stylised ballet at the academy and the macabre nightmare scene in Act II.
