Dance ‘til Dawn with Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace at the Bristol Hippodrome
You’re going to have to forgive me with this review. I am unashamedly biased towards Vincent and Flavia being an avid watcher of Strictly Come Dancing – the BBC Saturday night show that first bought these two amazing dancers to the eyes of the Great British public. Short of them coming on stage and doing a bad, slightly drunken, Hokey-Cokey it would be hard for me to give them a bad review.
Set in 1930’s Hollywood, Dance ‘til Dawn is a witty, clever pastiche of every clichéd Private Eye crime solving film ever made. But with dancing. And an orchestra. And fabulous singing.
Flavia and Vincent play fledging starlets who become embroiled in a seedy love triangle that quickly introduces a blackmail plot, some compromising photos, a gun and a femme fatale character that makes Jessica Rabbit look like Ena Sharples.
And the dancing. Oh wow, the dancing. Into this plot they’ve weaved a Samba, a Rumba, a Cha-Cha-Cha, an American Smooth, a brilliantly choreographed Jive, some cracking show dances and the grand finale – an Argentinian Tango of mind boggling speed and complexity.
But let’s also give credit where credit is due to the other dancers in the production. They were high energy, dazzling, precise and the overall impression was that of a show which had been very well rehearsed.
There is a matinee on Saturdays as well as the evening performance and I honestly don’t know how one can achieve the level of fitness required to perform as these dancers did once a day, never mind twice.
I feel I want to have a lie down just thinking about it.
If you love dance, if you love watching colourful, vibrant performances to a back drop of great 1930’s jazz and you can take a good dose of wit and humour then go and see this show.
And can you try and get Vincent and Flavia’s autograph for me please?
By Marie Millard
