Flashdance The Musical Reviews

JM from London

DISAPPOINTING

Firstly, I must admit I'm not a great lover of musicals. However, I love dance, Flashdance - the movie and particularly the sequence 'What a Feeling', so I was looking forward to watching the musical. From the start, the 1980s storyline updated just didn't work for me, I'm afraid. The hip hop/street dancing was great, but felt totally out of place. The background noise intended to help add atmosphere to some of the scenes was incredibly irritating and distracting and too loud. The well known songs used were far and away the best bits, with dull dialogue and overly long in between songs. What will remain to me more memorable than the 'What a Feeling' sequence from this show is Robert Webb's great Comic Relief version!

Sian Rickard from UK

MORE OF A DIM LIGHTBULB THAN A FLASH

Vaguely knowing the story of Flashdance I expected to be wowed by vigorous dance routines, choreographed by Arlene Phillips and singing along with popular 80’s tracks as they reignited a love for the era. However Flashdance was not so much a “Flash” and more of a “Dull flickering lightbulb”. The industrial scenery throughout the show is very good and the set flies around the stage effortlessly. However the story is a bit vague and jumpy, for example in the program synopsis it states that it is the main character, Alex’s dream to obtain a place at the Shipley Dance Academy but in reality it didn’t come across as her dream but her mother Hannah’s. Quite a flaw in the plot! The character building in act 1 was very slow and I only truly believed the character of Gloria (Alex’s best friend and fellow flashdancer). Overall the show came across as a bit plastic and cheesy.

ZD from London, England

GOOD CAST - DREADFUL SHOW

The cast performed well, with what they had. The show starts off with a musical number which seems as though it will never end and really gets no better. The numbers that you know and love are underplayed. The new music is boring and in total contrast to the songs from the movie. Mix this in with bad choregraphy (By Arlene Phillips) which doesn't work, with each segment being linked by 21st century HipHop dance breaks... you have a bad show. Dialogue is forced and you really don't care about the characters or the story. The famous water chair dance is cut down to mere seconds. A dream sequence sees yet more HipHop as does the encore, where the cast are dancing in the aisles... and the audience just sit staring... stunned. For the second night of previews, there was NO standing ovation and I witnessed many people not even applauding during the finale. Thsi show should have traded on nostalgia, in the same way as Saturday Night Fever or Dirty Dancing.

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