Top Hat, The Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, until Saturday, September 24.
Top Hat, finally on stage after the best part of a century, is a delight from first to last, a breath of fresh air delivered with remarkable skill and an energy that doesn’t dip for a moment.
The show-stealer is the deadpan valet Bates, offered up with blissful comic timing by Stephen Boswell - hilarious in his disguises.
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Hide AdRicardo Afonso also ups the ante beautifully as the bonkers, OTT fashion man and would-be husband Alberto.
But anchoring it all are delicious performances from the leads Tom Chambers and Summer Strallen, the one a Hollywood heartthrob, the other the girl who makes his own heart miss a beat.
He’s smooth; she’s feisty. He’s in love; but a monumental misunderstanding stops her from realising that he’s the one for her.
But then again, the path to true love was never a smooth one. It’s rarely, however, as entertaining or as stylish as this particular path.
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Hide AdThe dancing lifts your spirits; the songs stay with you, and what songs they are, everyone a cracker, from Cheek To Cheek to Let’s Face The Music And Dance, via You Can’t Brush Me Off and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Top Hat. Top that!
Phil Hewitt