Flashy and fun tale set to be a hit

Break the Floorboards, Oldham Coliseum, to Saturday

RIFCO Arts’ previous show “Britain’s Got Bhangra” was a hit at the Coliseum a few months ago and this new one looks like going the same way.

It’s typical of the smaller, flashy, X-Factor-generation shows doing the rounds these days: short, bright, energetic, greatly entertaining and pretty forgettable.

The story is a cheery little wish-fulfilment fantasy — the title comes from a Punjabi phrase usually translated as “go for it” — about Zain (Daniel Uppal), his brother Adil (Nathan Clarke) and their mother (Sheena Patel), all in limbo of sorts.

Zain, just out of school, wants to be a dancer but has trouble resisting the pressure from his politically-active, sporty older brother and mother, who think dancing is pointless.

Adil, meanwhile, is keen to stand up against trouble-causing fascist groups (though his own group is mainly made up of fellow fast-food workers whose secret call-sign is a clucking noise) and mum has been shut in the house, ashamed, since her husband left her.

Zain meets dancer Sophie (Carrie Baxter) who brings out his natural talent and overcomes his shyness, while mum decides she’s had enough of watching TV alone, worried what the neighbours might say, and Adil and some friends set up their own fast-food shop.

All’s well that ends well and ambitions, however minor, are fulfilled.

But this only scratches the surface of the evening since it is a musical of sorts, Asian pop providing the backing for a succession of Bollywood-style routines owing as much to street dance as to movie choreography.

Since the show is over by 9.15pm something has to give, and what does is pretty much character development, reduced to a few shorthand sentences between dance routines and fast scene changes, all tightly choreographed by director Pravesh Kumar and choreographer Andy Kumar.

But the dance routines are what the show is really about: Daniel Uppal might be making his acting debut but he has danced in many TV and West End shows in the last handful of years, and the rest of the cast offers strong backing as street dancers.

Uppal’s style is loose-limbed, exuberant and flashy — much like the evening, but it’s none the worse for that.