Great songs and dances, but a lack of romance

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TOP HAT

(Lowry, Salford)

PERHAPS it’s the clash of worlds: the lack of chemistry between the mostly TV-orientated, former “Strictly” champ Tom Chambers, who plays the Astaire role, and Summer Strallen, who has done little else but stage musicals and is already on her third Olivier nomination.

Or perhaps the original movie wasn’t so good as we thought — but we loved Astaire and Rogers anyway, in the first film specially written for them, with glorious songs by Irving Berlin.

It’s just that there is something about this first-ever stage production of the classic RKO movie that keeps it just short of a perfect 10.

But only a little short — in most other respects the evening is a delightful, massively enjoyable reconstruction of one of the black and white gems that inhabited TV on Sunday afternoons in my childhood.

The fault probably lies in both directions. There isn’t a lot of chemistry pulling Chambers and Strallen towards each other, but that isn’t necessarily their fault.

Both are terrific dancers — Chambers superb in the effortless routine with a hat-rack; Strallen gorgeous throughout.

But when it gets away from the magical dance numbers — when the leads really do shine — and the charmingly funny comedy scenes, “Top Hat”, like most Thirties stage shows, is a bit limp; a Hollywood-constructed fantasy in which people wear impossibly-formal informal clothes, pop over to Venice for the weekend, have waiters so servile they could have come out of Woodhouse, make fools of foreign buffoons and inhabit sets and costumes bordering on art, or at least art deco.

Go for the comedy and you won’t be disappointed; Chambers is likeable and amusing as Jerry, Martin Ball excellent as his producer and older friend, Hardwick, Vivien Parry superb as Hardwick’s wife and Ricardo Afonso likewise as the comedy Italian who is the night’s show-stealer. Even Stephen Boswell as the comedy butler hangs just the right side of reality. The result is sharp and fast-moving, despite the extended length from newly-added Berlin numbers.

And go for the songs and dancing and you won’t be disappointed either: with the title song and others, Berlin excelled himself, and the dance routines — whether Strallen and Chambers together or among dozens of tap dancers, are cleverly put together and excitingly noisy.

The only thing missing from this romantic comedy is the romance; lost in a frantic, screwball story about dancing, mistaken identity, wooing and winning. Overlook that, and this is a terrific night at the musicals.