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For the next week, the Opera House Manchester plays host to the all-singing all all-dancing new production of Top Hat. Based on the 1935 musical comedy that featured Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and the music of Irving Berlin, this is the perfect early Christmas theatrical treat to transport you back to a golden era of Hollywood.
For those not familiar with the original, Top Hat follows the journey of Broadway star Jerry Travers (Phillip Attmore) as he prepares to make his debut on the West End stage. Upon arrival, his English producer Horace Hardwick (James Hume) is concerned that the fame of the tap dancing lothario could ruin the London audience’s surprise at the American actor’s new starring role, so he registers him at the hotel in his name.
Top Hat at the Opera House
Everything is going all well and good until Jerry falls in love with the beautiful Dale Tremont (Amara Okereke). She’s equally besotted until she mistakenly believes that Jerry is Horace and goes to inform her friend Madge (Sally Ann Triplett), who is Horace’s wife.
This gossamer-thin infidelity farce plot is pretty much the entirety of the story for the two-act musical. Adapted for the stage in 2011 by Matthew White and Howard Jacques, Top Hat won the Laurence Olivier Award in 2013 for Best New Musical. The story is the same as it was then, revolving entirely around the suggested and actual unfaithfulness of the characters, with little else going on.
However, Top Hat has never been about the storyline. Yes, it’s sweet when Jerry and Dale inevitably work out that they are both single-ish enough to fall in love properly, but the actual reason you might come to the Opera House on a cold November night in Manchester is to enjoy the period dress, the show tunes, and the tap dancing.
An incredible supporting cast
On that, Top Hat delivers in spades. Attmore manages to fill the lofty tap shoes of Astaire with mountains of charisma, a cool Transatlantic drawl, and the jitterbug legs to prove it. Opposite him, Okereke provides genuine pathos among the silly plot points musically with her powerful, sumptuous singing voice.
Top Hat’s greatest qualities lie in its supporting cast. The love-hate relationship between Horace and Madge does fall a tad too deeply into wife-hating Boomer humour, but the comic timing and chemistry of Hume and Triplett is undeniable.
More comic relief comes from valet Bates, played with the subtlety of a panto dame by James Clyde to wonderful effect alongside the ridiculous effeminate Italian dressmaker Alberto Beddini, played by a fully committed Alex Gibson-Giorgio.
The jokes can feel quite old hat, pardon the pun, particularly in the way the show deals with Italian tropes and marital strife, but even through a 21st-century lens it’s hard not to enjoy the tautness of each tightly wound punchline.
Given its source material is 90 years old, it’s also appreciated how much the show leans into giving the implied homosexual or “continental” side characters room to take up the plot. Although often played for comedy value, their sexualities never feel like the butt of the joke and merely add flavour to the other dynamics.
While this revival of Top Hat will never be accused of being a revolutionary piece of theatre in terms of sexual politics, it manages to successfully achieve its goal of transporting theatre goers back into a living version of a beloved 30s musical.
Director Kathleen Marshall has lovingly recreated the glamour and joy of the musical, with Peter McKintosh’s stage design bringing a gorgeous Art Deco revolving set alongside his and Yvonne Milnes’ sumptuous costumes. The dancing and music are also pitch-perfect throughout, thanks to an excellent ensemble and orchestra.
Tickets for Top Hat at the Opera House
If your idea of a lovely night in this winter is to sit back and enjoy a classic movie from this beloved era of Hollywood musicals, then this is the perfect reason to turn your plans, instead, into a night out.
Top Hat is on at the Opera House, Manchester from 25th to 29th November.
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