Lord of the Dance : Dangerous Games
20th Anniversary Celebration of Lord of the Dance
Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea
31st January - 5th February 2017
20th Anniversary Celebration of Lord of the Dance
Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea
31st January - 5th February 2017
Twenty years ago, when I used to work as a secretary in London, a few of my work colleagues and I went to see Michael Flatley at the Coliseum in, what was then, one of the most highly anticipated dance shows the West End was about to see.
Lord of the Dance came to us hot on the heels of the Riverdance phenomenon which had wowed everyone in the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. If my memory serves me well, there was a bit of a hoo ha about Flatley going off and creating this new production and a lot was riding on its success.
Having premiered the show in Ireland to rave reviews, the anticipation to see Lord of the Dance in London had almost reached fever pitch, with even Prince Charles and Diana attending a show during its Coliseum run and where on this particular occasion, despite the fact that Flatley had a ripped muscle in his leg held together only by sellotape, he insisted on performing in front of them. There's no doubt that Flatley is a very determined, dedicated and driven man and the success of Lord of Dance is clearly down to his passion and grit.
Having had a few drinks with the girls that night, I will never forget, as I sat in the stalls of the Coliseum, being snapped back into sobriety with the sound of Flatley's feet tapping faster and louder than hailstones on a tin roof. Not only was the show an innovative sensation, it was also visually stunning; the costumes were traditional, yet sensual and of course the dancing was like we'd never seen before, breaking just enough from the traditional style to make it that much more exciting, Most importantly, the music perfectly captured the emotion of the show's premise and Irish roots. I loved it so much, my train journeys into work from thereon in were often filled with listening to the soundtrack of that show and I played it so much during my pregnancy with my daughter, that she swears she already knew the music before she was born!
Now, not only is my daughter in her 20th year, so astonishingly is the anniversary of Lord of the Dance. I presume, to keep up with the times, Flatley has redesigned the production, now named Lord of the Dance : Dangerous Games to feature new staging, cutting edge technology, new costumes and choreography as well as new music by composer Gerard Fahy. Unfortunately - and I really, really hate to say this - it just doesn't work for me. There's an awful lot of technology in this show and while it looks stunning and is very cleverly worked into the storyline, dare I say, it's just a little bit too much.
Obviously, this is Flatley's baby and he's not going to want audiences to miss out on seeing him and his real life baby, so he is projected on to the huge screen firstly as himself at the beginning of the show with his young son and later, his head is projected on to the screen looking like a sort of red Robocop meets Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs type combo. Therein the confusion begins.
The storyline, obviously, is loosely based on the Lord of Dance, the classic tale of good versus evil. We have the little Spirit (Jess Judge) with her tin whistle playing 'I am the Lord of the Dance' numerous times and doing a bit of gymnastics and then we have the naughty seductress Morrighan, (Andrea Kren), trying to come between the Lord and his true love Saoirse, (Caroline Gray) and causing him to have a bit of fisty-cuffs against the Dark Disciples. In between the dancing, we are treated to some beautiful tunes from Erin the Goddess (Sophie Evans) and some excellent fiddle playing from Giada Constenaro Cunningham and Nicole Lonergan.
Now I'm pretty sure that had I never seen the original version of this show, I wouldn't be so picky about this current one but I have to say that I found this revamped production quite disappointing. The costumes for the girls seem to have gone from sensuously sexy to gratuitous and the boys couldn't get their tops off quick enough, not that the ladies to the right of me were complaining! (I chatted to them afterwards and they told me it was their favourite bit - see Ask the Audience below.) When they weren't baring their chests, for some reason the Dark Disciple dancers were decked out in what I can only describe as some sort of Dr Who Cyborg costume circa 1975 and the girls' costumes varied from Barbie bridesmaid dresses to Jane Fonda workout lycra. The music has been rearranged to still have echoes of the original score and is, in itself, hauntingly beautiful but I longed to hear at least a few of the original tunes that evoked so much emotion into the original piece.
There's no doubt that the company of this production literally work their socks off and Flatley protege, James Keegan as the Lord must have done just that because - I'm running with the Dr Who theme here - in Act 2 he had regenerated into Flatley protege number 2, Matt Smith. No, not that Matt Smith. Mind you, with all the buzz surrounding Peter Capaldi leaving Dr Who this week, I wouldn't have been surprised to see him pop up to fight the Cyborgs, I mean Dark Disciples. I'm still trying to find out what happened to James (hopefully nothing serious*) but Matt took over the role and proved that he can dance and tap just as well as Flatley, much to the audience's delight - that is, until Flatley is projected on to the screen again at the end where we see 3, yes 3 of him in a sort of 'tap off' against each other. Bit weird.
Of course the show wouldn't be complete without the Lord of the Dance line-up at the end which is always going to be an audience pleaser and many were up on their feet to give the hardworking cast a standing ovation. Me, I'll just pop on the original soundtrack.
* The company manager has informed us that James Keegan picked up an injury in Act 1 and as a precaution another dancer took over.
Lord of the Dance came to us hot on the heels of the Riverdance phenomenon which had wowed everyone in the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. If my memory serves me well, there was a bit of a hoo ha about Flatley going off and creating this new production and a lot was riding on its success.
Having premiered the show in Ireland to rave reviews, the anticipation to see Lord of the Dance in London had almost reached fever pitch, with even Prince Charles and Diana attending a show during its Coliseum run and where on this particular occasion, despite the fact that Flatley had a ripped muscle in his leg held together only by sellotape, he insisted on performing in front of them. There's no doubt that Flatley is a very determined, dedicated and driven man and the success of Lord of Dance is clearly down to his passion and grit.
Having had a few drinks with the girls that night, I will never forget, as I sat in the stalls of the Coliseum, being snapped back into sobriety with the sound of Flatley's feet tapping faster and louder than hailstones on a tin roof. Not only was the show an innovative sensation, it was also visually stunning; the costumes were traditional, yet sensual and of course the dancing was like we'd never seen before, breaking just enough from the traditional style to make it that much more exciting, Most importantly, the music perfectly captured the emotion of the show's premise and Irish roots. I loved it so much, my train journeys into work from thereon in were often filled with listening to the soundtrack of that show and I played it so much during my pregnancy with my daughter, that she swears she already knew the music before she was born!
Now, not only is my daughter in her 20th year, so astonishingly is the anniversary of Lord of the Dance. I presume, to keep up with the times, Flatley has redesigned the production, now named Lord of the Dance : Dangerous Games to feature new staging, cutting edge technology, new costumes and choreography as well as new music by composer Gerard Fahy. Unfortunately - and I really, really hate to say this - it just doesn't work for me. There's an awful lot of technology in this show and while it looks stunning and is very cleverly worked into the storyline, dare I say, it's just a little bit too much.
Obviously, this is Flatley's baby and he's not going to want audiences to miss out on seeing him and his real life baby, so he is projected on to the huge screen firstly as himself at the beginning of the show with his young son and later, his head is projected on to the screen looking like a sort of red Robocop meets Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs type combo. Therein the confusion begins.
The storyline, obviously, is loosely based on the Lord of Dance, the classic tale of good versus evil. We have the little Spirit (Jess Judge) with her tin whistle playing 'I am the Lord of the Dance' numerous times and doing a bit of gymnastics and then we have the naughty seductress Morrighan, (Andrea Kren), trying to come between the Lord and his true love Saoirse, (Caroline Gray) and causing him to have a bit of fisty-cuffs against the Dark Disciples. In between the dancing, we are treated to some beautiful tunes from Erin the Goddess (Sophie Evans) and some excellent fiddle playing from Giada Constenaro Cunningham and Nicole Lonergan.
Now I'm pretty sure that had I never seen the original version of this show, I wouldn't be so picky about this current one but I have to say that I found this revamped production quite disappointing. The costumes for the girls seem to have gone from sensuously sexy to gratuitous and the boys couldn't get their tops off quick enough, not that the ladies to the right of me were complaining! (I chatted to them afterwards and they told me it was their favourite bit - see Ask the Audience below.) When they weren't baring their chests, for some reason the Dark Disciple dancers were decked out in what I can only describe as some sort of Dr Who Cyborg costume circa 1975 and the girls' costumes varied from Barbie bridesmaid dresses to Jane Fonda workout lycra. The music has been rearranged to still have echoes of the original score and is, in itself, hauntingly beautiful but I longed to hear at least a few of the original tunes that evoked so much emotion into the original piece.
There's no doubt that the company of this production literally work their socks off and Flatley protege, James Keegan as the Lord must have done just that because - I'm running with the Dr Who theme here - in Act 2 he had regenerated into Flatley protege number 2, Matt Smith. No, not that Matt Smith. Mind you, with all the buzz surrounding Peter Capaldi leaving Dr Who this week, I wouldn't have been surprised to see him pop up to fight the Cyborgs, I mean Dark Disciples. I'm still trying to find out what happened to James (hopefully nothing serious*) but Matt took over the role and proved that he can dance and tap just as well as Flatley, much to the audience's delight - that is, until Flatley is projected on to the screen again at the end where we see 3, yes 3 of him in a sort of 'tap off' against each other. Bit weird.
Of course the show wouldn't be complete without the Lord of the Dance line-up at the end which is always going to be an audience pleaser and many were up on their feet to give the hardworking cast a standing ovation. Me, I'll just pop on the original soundtrack.
* The company manager has informed us that James Keegan picked up an injury in Act 1 and as a precaution another dancer took over.
For tickets go online to www.southendtheatres.org.uk or call the box office on 01702 351135
Ask the Audience
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Jenny, Maldon
"It was great. I thought they were all really good!" Maureen, Maldon
"It was fantastic. It was the first time I've seen it and I loved every minute. I would definitely recommend it to my friends." Jean, Wickford
"I've seen it before and I loved this version. I liked the men the best - especially when they took their tops off!!" |
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