Top Hat

by Irving Berlin

seen at the Chichester Festival Theatre on 23 August 2025

RKO's 1935 film Top Hat has been adapted for the stage by Matthew White and Howard Jacques, and is directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall. Jerry Travers (the part taken by Fred Astaire in the film) is played by Phillip Attmore and Dale Tremont (taken by Ginger Rogers) by Lucy St. Louis, with Horace Hardwick played by Clive Carter and Madge Hardwick by Sally Ann Triplett, together with a large supporting cast.

The play is essentially a farce generated by prolonged mistaken identities and misunderstandings, interspersed with now-famous songs and dazzling tap routines. To some extent the musical numbers slow down the farce (problematic since the genre depends on fast action to disguise the improbabilities) while the ludicrous situations surround classic songs and dances with unrelated froth, but the resulting confection is very entertaining and the comic energy gathers pace, especially in the second half.

Transferring a film, in which it is easy to move from place to place with a camera fade, to the stage can be a perilous affair, but the set designer Peter McKintosh has solved the problems on the Chichester's thrust stage with a glitzy all-purpose Art Deco backdrop, the clever use of a revolve, and adroit placements of furniture by a bevy of assorted hotel staff. Even the quick shifts from one bedroom suite to another, required in both the London and the Venetian settings, are managed with flair, while a series of benches or balustrades rise from the revolving floor when required for hotel lobbies or bandstands.

The leading couple perhaps inevitably lack the extraordinary chemistry of their film originals, but nonetheless play off each other engagingly and prove sterling dancers in both duets and ensemble numbers. On the exposed circle of the stage, with the outermost area lower than the centre, the sheer skill of co-ordinated tap dancing is shown off to exhilarating effect; since the style is now not so often seen it is salutary to be reminded how accomplished the cast must be to deliver the routines without mishap.

All in all, a good evening's entertainment. 

Girl from the North Country

by Conor McPherson, songs by Bob Dylan

seen at the Old Vic on 20 August 2025

This is a revival of the Old Vic's 2017 production with a new cast, providing a welcome opportunity to see the piece again.

See my review from 6 September 2017 for details of the production. 

What I noticed particularly on this viewing was how melancholy the narrative arc was. Unusually for a musical, no applause was offered by the utterly engaged audience for any of the songs, allowing for a completely unbroken span of attention throughout the performance, and preserving the atmosphere of increasing desperation without distraction. This was by no means because the audience was dissatisfied, as the enthusiastic applause at the end demonstrated, but somehow a sense prevailed that interim applause would break the spell.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

seen at  the Bridge Theatre on 19 August 2025

This is a revival of Nicholas Hytner's hugely successful 2019 production of the play, with a new cast except for Puck, inimitably played by David Moorst: it is hard to imagine anyone else bringing his skills as an actor and acrobat to this interpretation of the part.

Even on a second viewing the production was well worth seeing, the modern interpolations as funny as before, and the stagecraft marvellous to behold. Though it may be suspected that the Bridge is 'marking time', having hugely extended its run of Guys and Dolls and then revived a past production, the move must be justified financially and the standards have by no means slipped.

See my review from 17 August 2019 for more details of how the play was conceived.