Ballroom to Broadway Anton Du Beke Review
Ballroom to Broadway
Anton Du Beke
Symphony Hall, Birmingham
9 March 2014
Reviewed by Heather Steadman
If you love a good show tune combined with a little bit of the glitz and glamour of the TV show Strictly Come Dancing then you will probably enjoy this song and dance show. I was expecting to thoroughly enjoy myself. I adore the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance routines on film, I enjoy my own ballroom and Latin dancing lessons and I love Broadway musical songs, ultimately however I left the performance feeling slightly under-whelmed.
Birmingham Symphony Hall is a world class venue with wonderful acoustics and as soon as the London Concert Orchestra began to play I felt the smile spread across my face, the sound was fantastic. The orchestra led by Richard Balcombe were brilliant and I did find that I actually enjoyed listening to the music more than I enjoyed watching the dancing. This could be due to the fact that we had seats in the stalls and looked across at the figures on stage. I found that although I had a clear view I didn’t like the viewing position and would have preferred to look down at the dancing from slightly higher up.
Anton Du Beke’s normal dance partner Erin Boag is in the latter stages of her pregnancy so Anton is joined on stage by the West End star Summer Strallen (Top Hat, Love never dies and The Sound of Music) and Lance Ellington (from Strictly come Dancing) who has a great voice. I particularly enjoyed his solo performances; To Dream the impossible dream; Mac the knife and This is the moment: Dance highlights for me included a beautiful and romantic waltz to Hushabye mountain and a slow fox trot to Music of the night although there were many light, lively and happy up tempo numbers too.
I have to admit there were times in the show when I felt bored. Anton has an affable charm but he did spend far too much time talking. Before the interval he entertained the audience speaking about his experiences on the TV show and the celebrity contestants he’d partnered. His humour seemed to go down well with most people but I didn’t appreciate some of his quips at other people’s expense. In the second half of the show he used a question and answer session to do more of the same.
The venue which seats 2,262 people was absolutely full and although there were a mixture of ages in the audience the majority looked to be between the ages of 60 and 80 years old. Anton it appears is very popular with the older ladies, many of whom took the opportunity to wave to him whenever they could and quite a number of them stood to give a standing ovation at the end of the show.
I will definitely go back to the Symphony Hall to listen to orchestral concerts but not to see this type of show. Watching the live dancing on this stage wasn’t as interesting as watching dancing on TV where camera work gives you multiple points of view and can zoom in on details. It wasn’t as interesting as watching the spectacle of musical theatre either because it wasn’t on a big enough scale and the hall lacked atmosphere.
Rating: 4/5
Anton Du Beke is on tour with Ballroom to Broadway until 30 March 2014, for more information and tour dates visit www.antonanderin.com.
For more shows and the Symphony Hall, Birmingham visit www.thsh.co.uk.
