The Car Man - Review

Sadler's Wells, London

*****

Music by Terry Davies and Rodion Shchedrin's Carmen Suite (after Bizet's Carmen)

Directed and choregraphed by Matthew Bourne

The company of The Car Man

Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man is more than just a ballet. This modern classic that was first performed some 20 years ago is a homage to both cinema and opera delivered through the sublime fusion of dance.

Inspired by Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen, Bourne translates the tale of simmering lust, jealousy, revenge and murder from 19th century Spain to America’s 1950s Midwest and the small town of Harmony. Where Bizet’s opera was set in and around a tobacco factory in Seville, Bourne’s action focusses on Dino’s car repair shop and diner that sits at the heart of the town’s Hispanic community. Lana is Dino’s smoulderingly beautiful and profoundly frustrated wife, and when  handsome drifter Luca arrives in town looking for work, Lana finds him irresistible. Throw in the subplot of a romance between locals Angelo and Rita and with Bourne adding a strand of bisexuality to the plot, the components are all in place for a story that proves as tragic as it is grippingly exciting throughout.

Bourne’s New Adventures company alternate the principal roles throughout the run and on the evening of this review, the characters were danced thus:

LUCA - Will Bozier

LANA - Ashley Shaw

ANGELO - Harry Ondrak-Wright

RITA – Anna-Maria De Freitas

DINO - Danny Reubens

The evening’s music is drawn from the Carmen Suite, Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin's Bolshoi Ballet version of Bizet's original, with additional music by composer Terry Davies and of course, the melodies work beautifully. For opera buffs, the score respects Bizet’s brilliant original, while for those in the audience whose knowledge may be more confined to Now That’s What I Call Opera highlights, all the classic tunes are there. The Habanera plays as a recurring motif throughout the evening, while to have the car mechanics taking a steamy shower after a hard day’s labour, to the Prelude from Carmen, is a moment of rare, comically choreographed genius. 

As is to be expected, the acting and dance are beyond flawless. Rage, passion and desire are all palpably conveyed through the dancers’ faces and bodies, with the story's twists and turns all proving incredibly easy to follow.

Lez Brotherston (who else?) has designed the set with a staging that incorporates nods to film as well as Americana, with the town’s jailhouse and nightclub, as well as the workshop (complete with the arcing flickers of welders’ torches) all woven seamlessly into the tale.  

That Bourne’s choreography includes a car race between two rival gangs of young men (think of Grease and you’re getting close) only emphasises the creative mastery of this, our finest choreographer.

At Sadler’s Wells for the rest of August and then on tour. UNMISSABLE!

Runs until 29th August, then on tour.

Photo credit: Johan Persson

Grease The Immersive Movie Musical - Review

Evolution, London

****

Based on Grease by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey

Directed by Matt Costain

Grease - The Immersive Movie Musical Finale

Battersea Park’s Evolution venue is transformed into Rydell High School for a glorious evening of summer loving in Grease - The Immersive Movie Musical.

Secret Cinema’s 2025 London production is a grand translation of the movie into a multi-media experience. The pre-show experience is a funfair in Evolution’s grounds themed on the movie's finale, before the doors open to reveal a vast space that has been stunningly designed by Tom Rogers capturing key scenes from the film in a meticulously created tribute. This is one of those shows where you can see where the producers’ cash has been spent - the staging is as lavish as it is fun and it truly is worth every penny spent on a ticket!

Matt Costain directs the show that sees the evening segue between the original movie and live musical theatre performance. The event also offers up the opportunity to reflect on what a brilliant piece of big-screen cinema Randal Kleiser’s 1978 movie really was. It wasn’t just the (30yo!) gorgeous Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta (24) singing and dancing spectacularly. The film was a brilliantly crafted, written, photographed and performed satirical commentary on the 1950s through a 1970s lens. And all delivered with perfectly corny pastiche and not a hint of CGI in sight!

In Battersea Park, the wit and humour that has gone into translating the film's scenes into simultaneously performed tableaux is inspired. All the moments are gems, but when cars are involved (think Greased Lighting , Sandy (sung at the Drive-In) and the big race at Thunder River) the effects are as ingenious as they are hilarious. There is room for audience participation too, in some of the bigger staged numbers, that only adds to the show's joy.

Liam Morris is stranded at the Drive-In

Costain’s cast are a blast. Liam Morris and Stephanie Costi are perfectly cast as Danny and Sandy, both capturing the style of their on-screen characters to a tee. A nod too to Leah Dane’s Cha Cha whose dance work in Born To Hand Jive is sensational.

The creatives alongside Costain are equally talented, with Jennifer Weber’s choreography, Susan Kulkarni and Martina Trottmann’s costumes and Howard Hudson’s as always outstanding lighting designs all adding to the evening’s magic.

With food and drink available throughout the evening the whole gig becomes more of a party than a show and with at least half of the audience having made the effort to dress up as Pink Ladies or T-Birds, what's not to love?

Grease - The Immersive Movie Musical is playing until September so head to London's very own Rydell High for.... Oh,  those summer nights!

Runs until 7th September

Photo Credits: DannyWithACamera and Matt Crockett

Grease

Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford

****

Book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey
Directed by Michael Vivian

One of many stunning dance moments from the GSA class of 2014

The audience for Grease, on a Monday night in refined Guildford with the River Wey in near flood-like spate, may well have been more blue-rinsed than Brylcreem’d but along with the cast’s family and friends they packed out the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. There, they witnessed the GSA class of 2014 morph into the Rydell High graduates of ‘58 in this all-American tale of rites of passage that over many years and countless disco mega-mixes, has been so forcibly injected into our culture.

We know the songs and the story, so with little to surprise us in the plot it is down to the cast’s talent and the show’s production values to impress. And at times this production is truly breathtaking, never better than when the full ensemble pack the stage to execute Phyllida Crowley-Smith’s inspired dance work. If the Rydell girls sing and act, en masse, better than the boys, (which generally they do) then the lads’ movement, which was at times almost acrobatic, more than makes up for it. The agile, technical excellence that the dancers display in Grease Lightning and the show’s carnival like finale, to name but two memorable moments, suggests the jaw-dropping choreography of David Toguri in his pomp.

Like all drama school productions, the focus here is on the company rather than upon the leading characters. That being said, there are still some stand-out performances on offer. Ones to watch from this year’s graduation are Erik West, whose bespectacled square-jawed Eugene is a masterclass in akward geek and who when the Rocky Horror show is next being cast should be a nailed on Brad. Elizabeth Walker admirably tackled the challenge that is Sandy. To plausibly play the pink-clad saint-like virgin, who falls from grace to become a cigarette smoking high heeled hussy ain't easy but Walker pulls it off. Andy Owens’ Doody singing These Magic Changes was perhaps the most charismatic male vocal turn, but the truly spine-tingling performance of the night came from Ellie Ann Lowe’s take on the grizzled Rizzo. Lowe skilfully explored the layers of this brash and ballsy yet still damaged and complex character with empathy beyond her years and her solo, the not often heard “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” was deeply moving in its honest intensity.

For the townsfolk of Guildford, Grease makes for a grand night out. The staging is clever, the laughs are familiar and corny and so long as the teeming Wey stays within its banks, there truly are worse things you could do than give these talented undergraduates full houses for the rest of the week.

Runs until 15th February

Photography by Mark Dean