ON YOUR TOES
Festival Hall, London SE1, Aug 4-Sep 6
(020-7960 4242)
IT IS about time that Rodgers and Hart’s wonderful 1936 musical was seen again in London. It is one of the greatest of all the dancing musicals, a light- hearted show about dance told in classical ballet and jazzy hoofing.
When On Your Toes opened on Broadway, it marked the first time that a musical had featured a proper ballet. Called Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, it was originally choreographed by George Balanchine. For this revival, which originated at the Leicester Haymarket, there is new choreography by Adam Cooper, who also stars as Junior Dolan, the jazz-loving music professor who falls under the spell of a Russian ballet company while it is on tour in New York.
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This production at the South Bank boasts a terrific line-up of former Royal Ballet stars. In addition to the delightful Cooper, who found fame in the West End in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, there is Sarah Wildor, who impressed us so much with her performance as the frustrated New York housewife in the musical Contact.
Wildor takes the part of Vera Baronova, the temperamental, self- obsessed Russian ballerina who wreaks havoc on everyone’s life. Irek Mukhamedov, who danced at Covent Garden with both Wildor and Cooper, is Konstantine Morrisone, the jealous rival. The West End singer and actress Kathryn Evans is wonderful as Peggy Porterfield. Paul Kerryson directs and the handsome designs are by Paul Farnsworth.