Best foot forward for Astaire tribute

Puttin’ on your Top Hat: a Tribute to Fred Astaire, Halle Orchestra, Bridgewater Hall.

AN iconic dancer, a composer’s singer, a man of style and a revered film star. Fred Astaire, with his elegance, grace and passion for perfection is a showbiz legend.

Any tribute to Fred Astaire was bound to be a success, with the magnificent Halle orchestra providing the sounds and vocal duo Gary Williams and Rachel Weston providing the words.

But a stroke of genius, courtesy of conductor Benjamin Pope, made an enjoyable night into something rather special.

For shortly after the show got underway, it paused for Pope to introduce a very special guest — Astaire’s daughter — who shared some of her most intimate memories of a man she knew first and foremost as “a wonderful father.”

The death of her mother at the age of 12, resulted in Ava Astaire McKenzie and “FA” becoming close, and she acted as his hostess and companion for Hollywood events for many years.

She told of the time he sneaked out to paint Hollywood’s Royal blue mailboxes with two yellow stripes and a red hat – the racing colours of the jockey who raced his horses, and of the 10 days of rehearsals with 10,000 golf balls to get the perfect take of him hitting eight balls while dancing in rhythm.

She recalled the evening she enjoyed dinner sandwiched between Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, while accompanying her father, his service in the war, and of his excitement of appearing in the blockbuster “Towering Inferno.”

“Top Hat,” “The Continental,” “A Fine Romance,” “A Couple of Swells,” “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” “Swonderful,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” were just some of the musical offerings in a wonderful evening.

The informal atmosphere continued as Rachel performed a solo, playing the piano as she sang the haunting “Dancing in the Dark,” from “The Band Wagon,” and the orchestra performed a stunning arrangement of “The Way You Look Tonight,” with beautiful piano and violin solos.