New Critical Voices: Shannan Turner on Top Hat:The Musical

Amara Okereke and Phillip Attmore in Top Hat:The Musical. Image uncredited

New Critical Voices: encouraging a diversity of critical viewpoints and offering real time opportunities for aspiring critics.

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Cheeky and charming, Top Hat:The Musical is a classic love-letter to 1930’s Hollywood. Based on Irving Berlin’s iconic 1935 film of the same name, Matthew White and Howard Jacques faithfully re-imagine the love story played famously by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for the theatrical stage. Speckled with contemporary references from Teddy Baldock to Burlesque, Top Hat:The Musical flourishes as a time capsule to the bedazzling past of Hollywood. Berlin's movie being one of the foundational archetypes for musical theatre.

The story follows the classic boy-meets-girl trope. Following the plot of the movie, famous tap-dancer Jerry Travers (Phillip Attmore) is in pursuit of the elegant Dale Tremont (Amara Okereke) looking to capture her heart. Naturally it’s a rocky road to success, mostly due to mistaken identity. Like Romeo and Juliet there is major significance in Shakespeare’s “What’s in a name?” thankfully with comedic confusion instead of tragedy. Attmore ensuring viewers fall in love again with Fred Astaire’s iconic Jerry Travers, paying an impressive homage to Astaire’s suave swagger, making it difficult not to love the guy. His charm eventually proving irresistible to the reluctant Dale Tremont (Okereke), their chemistry alluring. Where Attmore’s talent in dancing shines, Okereke complements with her powerful singing. As a duo they pay satisfactory respect to Astaire and Rogers, using their combined talents to capture the romantic elegance of the famous pair.

Amara Okereke and Phillip Attmore in Top Hat:The Musical. Image uncredited

The second act allows secondary characters to shine and steal the heart. James Hume and Emma Williams owning their roles as ambivalent couple Horace and Madge Hardwick. With phenomenal chemistry and talent, they hoist their duet Outside of That, I Love You to the top of the iconic discography, competing with Cheek to Cheek and Puttin’ On the Ritz for best song of the show. Comedic relief by Alex Gibson-Giorgio’s fashion designer Beddini and Connor Hughes’ manservant Bates re-ignite the charms of classic Hollywood to an undeniably entertaining degree. Making it hard to remember that this is a live performance and not a movie.

Direction by multi-Tony and Olivier Award winner Kathleen Marshall cements the elegance and glamour of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Despite focus on the language of dance, choreography missed opportunities to truly amaze. However, Peter McKintosh’s wow-factor set makes up for the loss capturing an idyllic Hollywood. The rotating, semi-circular clock-face backdrop allowing scene transitions seems cinematic and picturesque. Paul Groothus’ sound design and Irving Berlin’s score graciously emphasise Hollywood’s colourful past, topped off by Tim Mitchell’s sumptuous lighting. If staging was difficult to look away from, costumes by Yvonne Milnes and Peter McKintosh made looking away impossible. Authentically vintage and captivating, each costume perfectly expressed character, from Beddini’s dresses to Bates’ various disguises.

Top Hat:The Musical. Image uncredited

Awash in Hollywood’s classy demeanour, Top Hat:The Musical ticks all the entertainment boxes. Romantic, classy, with jazzy appeal, it is the epitome of 1930’s glamour captured delightfully on stage. A feel-good, sensational escape into dreams of early Hollywood, Top Hat:The Musical is an experience you won’t want to pass you by.

Top Hat:The Musical, a Chichester Festival Theatre production presented by Kenny Wax and Jonathan Church Theatre Productions, runs at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre until January 31.

For more information visit Bord Gáis Energy Theatre

Shannan Turner is an undergraduate student of Classics and Drama Studies at UCD. A hobbyist writer, theatre-goer and artist, select works of Shannan’s can be found online, most prominently in Gothic New Weird literary magazine Labyrinthine.