Transferring to the Southbank Centre for Christmas after a warmly reviewed season at Chichester, Top Hat is a new production of the modern stage adaptation of the 1935 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film, a classic piece of effervescent froth about Jerry, a tapdancing Broadway star who finds his days as a bachelor are numbered when he crosses paths with model Dale while opening a new show in London. It’s nonsense, in other words, but Irving Berlin’s score is sensational – numbers include ‘Cheek to Cheek’, ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance’, ‘Top Hat White Tie and Tails’ and ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ – and heavyweight Broadway director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall has provided tap sequences to die for.
The Chichester lead cast transfer with it, namely Phillip Attmore as Jerry Travers, Amara Okereke as Dale Tremont, Clive Carter as Horace Hardwick and Sally Ann Triplett as Madge Hardwick.
