the smycms

Top Hat!…Top That.

Posted by tony mcdonald on November 26, 2011 · 1 Comment 

All it takes to banish th0se winter blues is a large slice of Hollywood hokum courtesy of  Top Hat, the famous Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical from 1935 brought to life at the Edinburgh Playhouse with a brand new stage adaptation that simply drips with class. Starring Tom Chambers as Jerry Travers and Summer Strallen as Dale Tremont who, after a bit of mistaken identity, fall in love and everybody  lives happily ever after.

The musical numbers are full of Irving Berlin standards, Cheek to Cheek, Let’s Face The Music And Dance, Isn’t This a Lovely Day and of course Top Hat, White Tie And Tails all have you singing along, then there’s the dancing that has your feet tapping, Tom Chambers taps his way through the dance numbers with ease, the highlight for me being when he dances with a coat stand, absolutely brilliant, originally done by Fred Astaire in the film Royal Wedding, its inclusion is clearly a nod to Astaire’s mastery of dance.

Helped by a strong cast, a script loaded with funny one liners and a lavish set it was a great way to spend a dreary Edinburgh afternoon, this is one happy bunny. Hope you managed to catch it, now I wonder when it will be available for the Am Dram circuit, as there are one or two parts for me, and no there’s no drunk.