With the exciting news that Jukebox Collective have recently become a new Regularly Funded Organisation funded by Arts Council Wales. As well as supporting their young dancers to perform in Groove on Down the Road at the Wales Millennium Centre. Young Critics Wales project coordinator Guy O’Donnell caught up with Liara Barussi, Company Director and Zoe Munn, Development Manager to discuss the companies past present and future plans.
Hi both, thanks for taking the time to chat, firstly can you tell me about the background of Jukebox Collective?
Jukebox Collective is a creative company based in Cardiff, focused on the delivery of the highest quality street dance education, performance and consultancy. The creation of Jukebox in 2004 was a reflection of the increase in demand, as well as the need to provide an outlet for some of the most talented young dancers in the UK. Over 10 years since its creation, we still keep the core emphasis on nurturing fresh young talent up to professional level, as well as producing high-class work for stage and screen.
The Jukebox mission statement is – “Founded on the principle of excellence in street dance being a right for all, our mission is to inspire, create and educate through street dance and hip hop culture”.
Thanks I wonder if you can tell us how you apply this in practice?
We apply this through the development of a multi-strand approach: Participate, Theatre, Creative Services and The Academy. The approach developed is based on a deep knowledge of the dance forms taught with a growing understanding of the different avenues for dance. By bridging the gap between community and professional work, we provide the platform to support talent from grassroots through to professional. We continue to work with respected industry artists to inspire dancers and support our vision of excellence and education being accessed by all.
The company has its own premises and has held events like the Social Saturday’s can you tell us more about the intention behind these events?
Jukebox is all about sharing and exchanging dance, and these events are needed to create a sense of community within what we do. It’s important to keep an open door and have free public events so that anyone can access what we do. We want to get people together, to enjoy and exchange, to have fun and to explore something different. We want people to leave with memorable experiences and a taste of what dance can bring to them. These events allow us to reach out to new people, introduce dance styles that may be unfamiliar, and to showcase that street dance forms are a vibrant and vital part of the cultural narrative and to local communities. The get together’s are also a chance to encourage collaboration between dancers as well as with other art forms.
Liara you and Jukebox Collective have been very involved in the annual Breakin’ the Bay Weekend at the Wales Millennium Centre. It appears the WMC have been very supportive of Hip Hop culture. I wonder could you tell us more about your relationship with the WMC and involvement in this event?
Yes, I have been involved in curating the festival since its creation, over 10 years ago. We support Breakin’ the Bay to enable the Welsh dance community to become internationally recognised, as well as educating, inspiring and connecting them with other dancers across the world. This year we focused on sourcing some of the freshest national & international talent in Europe including dancers from France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland & Sweden. Jukebox’s reach on the International Hip Hop scene has attracted dancers from around the world to spectate and participate in the annual event. It’s the perfect opportunity to celebrate Hip Hop culture and all its diversity and bring it to the center of Wales. This year we also introduced a new “Experimental’ category, not only specific to this event but to the local dance community. This was very exciting and showcased a dynamic approach to street dance fusion.
Arts Council England have invested funding in Breakin Convention which takes place at Sadler’s Wells and companies such as Zoo Nation to support their touring. We note that Jukebox company members have just been involved in Zoo Nations ‘Groove on Down the Road’ (which also forms part of Cardiff Dance Festival) at the WMC 13-22 Nov. Could you tell us more about your involvement in this performance?
It’s great to see not only Arts Council England but also the theatre venues across the UK welcoming street dance and making it available to mainstream audiences. The involvement gives further opportunities to local youth to develop professionally and consider a career in street dance theatre. The Groove on Down the Road production features Jukebox Collective dancers – Jo-el Bertram, Shakira Ifill playing ‘Little Wiz’, and Renee Brito playing ‘Wicked Witch of the West’. We are delighted to participate and work in collaboration with Zoo Nation.
Arts Council Wales have recently named Jukebox as a Regularly Funded Organisation, congratulations! Can you tell us what led the company to apply?
Thank you! We applied as we felt with the support of ACW we could collaboratively grow the organisation to its full potential. Becoming a Regularly Funded Organisation provides us with more opportunity to produce creative work and to realise initiatives that support and celebrate talented creatives. We will also be able to plan further ahead and work more strategically. We are looking forward to developing this partnership and creating some fresh new work.
Your work supports a wide demographic of participants, I wonder if you think your organisation works with young creatives who wouldn’t otherwise be engaged in mainstream arts in Wales?
Yes, absolutely, we attract a diverse group of participants with our programs, and continue to have a point of view that talks to all people, regardless of location, gender, race and income. We are able to relate to a diverse group of people and cultures through their shared common interests. This commitment to equality and diversity is at the heart of all the work we do.
Welsh Assembly Government culture minister Ken Skates has been supportive of your company, Liara could you tell us more about your relationship?
The progressive discussion that the Minister is encouraging is very exciting, and the support really highlights the progression of our arts community in Wales. We are seeing the Senedd opening up to hear younger voices in the arts, and I’m very excited to be a newly appointed member of the Welsh Government’s Arts and Creativity Forum.
What are the long term plans for Jukebox?
We will focus on creating and expanding our dance Academy as well as continuing to produce compelling high quality dance productions. We want to keep creating opportunities and working closely with the local community, as well as touring professional work, and creating bespoke work for special events and campaigns. We are keen to support the development of young creatives in all aspects of performing arts. We want to work with local businesses and form partnerships to support all the strands of our work, aiming to build a healthy, sustainable company.
My aim with the creative work is to build a collective of dancers who develop a language that can be pushed to the very edges of expressive, aesthetic and visual possibility. I want to make collaborative work that pushes the language of dance to new, deeper levels – exploring the edges of possibility through movement and expression.
And finally how do I find out more if I want to get involved?
To get involved in any strand of the company, from professional development and performance or just for fun, if you have collaboration in mind or would just like to hear more about our work, you can contact zoe@jukeboxcollective.com.
https://youtu.be/QNuzTH8pAsc
Keep a look out for our new website, which will be launching in January 2016.
www.jukeboxcollective.com
Category Archives: Theatre
Review Parallel Lines, Dirty Protest by Kiera Sikora
Photo credit Kirsten McTernan Photography & Design
Honesty is severe. We desire it and we require it, we recognise that it is some thing that we always need. But as soon as it’s not what we want, we despise it. We just can’t win, can we?
Dirty Protest bring to Chapter Arts Centre a fantastic 90 minute revamp of their already acclaimed ‘Parallel Lines’ which executes an impulsively precise look at how two colliding worlds affect each other. Playwright Katherine Chandler, through her freshly updated script, allows us to see how a longing for affection affects opposing worlds and the individuals in them in a very witty Welsh manner.
Nothing is hidden. These two worlds are projected right in front of you throughout the whole piece with the cast present on stage, before, during and after their scenes. There’s a clear sense of consistent colliding consciences.
Catherine Paskell’s very slick, precise, physical direction of the piece creates a fighting contrast with the stress, pain and uncertainty that the characters feel throughout. Their movements are thoughtful and are elegantly highlighted by Joe Fletcher’s sharp lighting design and equally supported by Dan Lawrence’s eerie sound scape, together creating a pathway into the minds of the characters and their sole situations.
The stage homes very little set, just a table and few chairs which echoes that idea of loneliness and lack of nurture. But the constant presence of this collision between these two very different lifestyles fills the stage with all that you need to feel their thoughts and experience their dilemmas. The characters’ complexity allows you to empathise with their situations while the careful pace of the piece allows you time to detach yourself from their spoken words, in order for you to see the paranoia that exists beyond the language.
Photo credit Kirsten McTernan Photography & Design
Paskell’s vision lets us explore the baggage that comes with power, class and truth and how we react to uncertainty, isolation and our own versions of normality. The relationship between Jan Anderson as the wayward mother Melissa and Lowri Palfrey as her daughter Steph is one that you can’t help but enjoy and dislike they allow you to laugh and pity them, without asking for either reaction. While Gareth Pierce as Simon and Sara Lloyd-Gregory as Julia are the corrupted and obscurely humorous couple who implore you to recognise the devastation that follows accusations and doubt while also reminding us how important it is to say your P’s and Q’s and park your car considerably.
Throwing away the previous script and starting a fresh two years on with the challenge of it being as real and as relevant as before is a one that would take being beyond brave to do. But, I’ve got to be honest playwright Katherine Chandler and Dirty Protest did it! The play is intense, indulgent and intuitive. It feels familiar and it embodies a social situation at a raw and original level.
Photo credit Kirsten McTernan Photography & Design
So if you enjoy beautifully written Welsh wit and a story that you can believe then you know where to go. It’s honest, it’s funny and it’s inclusive best get going.
Dirty Protest’s first ever tour of ‘Parallel Lines’ continues at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff until 24th October. They then move onto: Pontardawe Arts Centre on October 28th, Aberystwyth Arts Centre on October 30th Galeri, Caernarfon on October 31st, Soar Centre, Treorchy on 2nd November Ffwrnes, Llanelli on 4th November. And finally, Theatr Hafren, Newtown on November 6th
You’d be crackers to miss it.
Review Yuri August 012 by Kaitlin Wray
Who is Yuri?……
This main theme ran throughout the whole show. Conversely even though the theme shows uncertainty and tension, August012 brought this play to life. This highly entertaining and comedic show was perfect for what I needed, to sit back and just have a good laugh. The story depicts a couple who are unable to get pregnant. Then, Yuri appears into their lives, but who is Yuri?……
The chemistry between the three actors is perfect and while each of them had strong stage presence, they don’t take over from each other. Carys Eleri, playing Adele, proved her diverse talent as she showed us a woman who can go from being ditsy, to alluring and then to completely crazy. Carys’ character was strong throughout and she was a pleasure to watch. Ceri Murphy, playing Patrick, is generally the only sane one throughout the whole performance, trying to understand what is going on. His struggles of trying to get to grips with who Yuri is, and trying to calm down Adele is very amusing to watch. His audience interaction was hilarious and he lured us in completely. Saying all that, the dynamics with both Adele’s and Patrick’s characters towards Yuri was the most entertaining to watch. Guto Wynne Davies, playing Yuri, didn’t say anything for 3/4 of the show but was fascinated on his balloon, and at the word ‘raffle’. Even though his character lacked in words, he wasn’t the less amusing to watch.
The comedic timing in this show was perfect throughout, it was evident that they spent hour upon hour making sure everything was in sync. The aesthetics of the performance were equally incredible, the set, the sound and the lighting were all well thought out and planned and they even added little perks by using silver confetti to represent water. However, even though this is a naturally funny show, there is still that one lingering question that will stay with you. Who is Yuri?….
This is a show that is enjoyable, pleasing to the eye and leave’s you walking out of the auditorium feeling glad to have experienced it.
Review Iliad NTW by Brian Roper
A guest review by 3rd Act Critic Brian Roper
ILIAD.
National Theatre Wales
Ffwrnes Theatre, Llanelli, 26 September 2015A bright autumn day in Llanelli grew even brighter as National Theatre Wales’ marathon production of the Iliad opened to an enthusiastic audience.
But there was something else going on that day. At 10.00 am the town was already buzzing with match-day fever as the first pints were evident and on Stryd Stepney, Max and Cerys belted out the old tunes. How would art fare in competition with rugby in this hotbed of the game? Rather well as it turned out.
In four parts this ancient tale was always likely to be epic, but it was never boring.
Directors Pearson and Brookes have previous, (Coriolanus, The Persians), and this multi-media staging of Logue’s War Music, itself derived from Homer’s account of the end of the Trojan War, is up there.
As you would expect the sound is compelling, always haunting it was at times almost wistful but the potential for bellicosity and pent-up violence was always present.
The projections range from largely static landscapes (in Wales?) which, whilst charming, seemed to be a long way from the Eastern Mediterranean and video headshots of local teenagers playing Gods.
A team of six narrators carried the three hundred pages of poetry with aplomb, all were convincing. Daniel Hawksford made a strong early showing and Richard Lynch grew into his roles but Melanie Walters stood out with her diction and accents and her acting through gesture and her facial projection.
The use of teleprompters restricted dramatic potential to the use of the upper body and engendered a sense of “talking heads” which diverted the attention of the audience away from the action and on to the screen, it seemed a bit like talking with friends in a pub with the TV on and finding that the usual dynamic cannot be established. Such an approach demands good tone and timbre in the voice and clear diction and enunciation which was provided on a consistent basis but the strongest effects came when the cast performed in choirs, as in the death of the bull sequence which was deeply moving.
The language conveyed the message. The elision of the ancient (7th century B.C.) and the modern and of the catastrophic and continuing threat of war, conflict and displacement, was conveyed admirably and the references to “helicopters”, ”privatise”, ”Australia” and “curly-girlie hair” could have disorientated, but did not.
NTW is good at sets and settings.The opened floor of the Ffwrnes theatre was a blank page and the weight of the production therefore fell on the set.
Think Kwikfit tyre bay meets a clearance sale at the garden centre.
I never appreciated how many uses plastic stacking chairs could be put to.
At its best it was outstanding, occasionally it was prosaic and sometimes it was plain irritating.
Building the set as you go along invites the audience to care and to share in the process and whilst some of the effects, like the raising of giant blooms on tripods were certainly dramatic, in the manner of raising the US flag on Iwo Jima, they also seemed to be rather pointless and distracting.
Audience engagement also involved being ushered around the space to make way for yet another “construction”, the audience becoming the set and, more welcomingly for the chosen few, being invited to lie down and play dead.
The marathon was sold out and as part four started the England v Wales rugby game kicked off. But the “literati”, as I heard us being described by a passing rugby fan (who must himself have been somewhat literate) were loyal to the cause. I recognised many who had been there at 10.30 that morning.
I asked our National Poet, Gillian Clark, for her opinion, she said” Tonight was so inspiring…it showed such respect for language…this was the NTW at its best.”
It was a marathon and it was epic. The concluding sound-scene with hunting horn and battle drums stayed with me as I scurried away from the theatre not wishing to overhear the rugby score, and made my way home on the M4, without the radio on, for the same reason. The sound of battle and desolation and of loss is with me now.
This was not just drama. It was arresting and compelling, a ”must-experience” experience.
The standing ovation was testimony to the power of this production and to the tenacity of the audience and I was delighted to be with them.
Brian Roper
27/09/2015
Review Blud Other Mother, The Other Room by Shannon Newman
Photograph Credit Pallasca Photography
Usually you wouldn’t associate football hooliganism with anything other than chavs and cheap thrills, but Blud goes beyond these initial prejudices, questioning loyalty and our need to belong – whether that’s to someone or something.
These are the key themes that are veiled under the supposed cult of football. What really matters to these characters is loyalty and finding a place in a society that renders you utterly powerless – which is precisely what the characters struggle with. Thus, Blud conveys football as a rite of passage into social mobility and ready-made identities, and eloquently so.
It takes some skills, for a writer and actors, to present a character that’s so immoral and yet so loveable. Yet thats what writer Kelly Jones and actors Francesca Marie Claire and Olivia Elsden do.
The stage directions – simple in action, though deeper in meaning, and therefore it goes without saying that you’d need to concentrate to fully appreciate the full extent of what they’re conveying.
It’s refreshing to see a theatre production that touches on such contemporary issues in a gritty, but wholly realistic manner.
This is theatre without the sugar coating, and that’s why we need it.
Review Ti.Me Cwmni Pluen by Kaitlin Wray
Cwmni Pluen company presents Ti.Me, a performance that symbolised the worlds greatest universal language, love. It was a representation of what it’s like to fall in love, to be in love and then when love deteriorates. Through the construction of physicalisation, live music and spoken language the company infused deep symbolisation with comedy.
Directors Elgan Rhys and Gethin Evans devised this piece with performers Heledd Gwynn and Alan Humphreys. Together they had 2 weeks to create a performance, and from watching it, it felt like it was months of hard work. The piece was original yet relatable to every person who’s ever been in a relationship.
The company in rehearsals
One of the main aspects that struck me was the use of the English and Welsh language during the production. Heledd’s character was fluent in Welsh where as Alan’s wasn’t. When Heledd was frustrated she would speak in Welsh, therefore Alan’s character didn’t have a clue what she was saying. This was an interesting way to portray the lack of communication between them. Furthermore the physical language between them shone out. When they were deeply in love they would be breathing simultaneously together, conversely, when they were having problems they would be out of sync with each other. This simple method was powerful to watch as they would be pretending to each other that everything was fine, when everyone in the audience could see that it wasn’t.
Performers Heledd Gwynn and Alan Humphreys
What made this piece stand out to me even more was the use of live music, composed by Chris Young. He used synthesisers to create music out of everyday sounds. The physical aspects of the piece wouldn’t have evoked as much emotion without the music. They go completely in hand.
Composer Chris Young
This piece was emotional, hilarious and mesmerising to watch. The performers interacted together so perfectly that you would think they were actually a couple. It was a piece full of truthfulness and it would be a shame if you missed out on it.
The production can be seen at Galeri Caernarfon on the 18th of this month
http://www.galericaernarfon.com/digwyddiadau/manylion-digwyddiad.php?eventKey=2054
Review Ti.Me Cwmni Pluen by Shannon Newman
Watching this production was like flicking through TV channels that only feature Disney films and scenes from mental asylums. Thus it’s hard not to imagine the writer as a philosopher with a bipolar disorder. But I loved it.
Ti.Me by Cwmni Pluen explores the melancholic realism about what we’re conditioned to believe about love. It questions the very nature of fate, and to what extent that it even exists, whilst revealing the hopeless naivety of the human condition.
Is it some grand illusion that we blindly tie ourselves to?
Although the play was successful in conveying so much emotion about this universal, yet very personal issue in such a short space of time, the anachronic order of the plot was sometimes difficult to follow, so it was hard to not think that the company were trying to outdo themselves with creativity
The lighting was generally easier to interpret than the choreography, but that’s not to criticise the actors, Heledd Gwynn and Alan Humphreys . In fact, they were the main reason for the productions success. It’s rare to find a play where the performers appear to completely lose themselves in their characters, as though even they were convinced of the world they create.
To put it simply: The play follows a couple who experience the joys and pains of love. Brought up and down by so-called ‘fate’, like a brilliantly messed up Cinderella story.
Review Blud The Other Room by Kaitlin Wray
The Other Room Theatre brings to the stage Cardiff’s three woman theatre company ‘otherMother’ with their original production ‘Blud’. This play, written by Kelly Jones, has themes centred around the rivalry between two football teams and the desperation to stand up for themselves.
Set in a football locker room, The Other Room Theatre provides the intimacy that is needed between the story and the audience. The play consists of two visible characters, Rita- the captain of Cotley Town’s female football firm and her sister, Lou- Olivia Elsden. These characters are completely incompatible in personalities but soon realise the need for each other.
This is a dark play with comical one liners. It showcases the brutality and the need to stand up for what you believe in. Francesca Marie Claire, embodying Rita plays a woman who puts football above everything else to try and show her rival team that she is a fighter. Francesca never falters at delivering a true, passionate and gritty working class girl. Lou, played by Olivia Elsden showed the audience a childlike 15 year old trying to reach out to her older sister. Olivia acted out an innocent girl that provides the audience with a lot of entertainment. However as the play went on her character grows and she is converted from being a child to someone who was providing advice and support. Both actors grasped their sense of character and made the thematics in the play drive out even more.
Photograph Credit Pallasca Photography
The play is well structured and well written. It started off with a monologue from Rita that set the scene and unveiled her character. Throughout the play we are given insights of their past and how they grew up without this being portrayed as a biography. Chris Young, provided us with a soundscape, that gives us a sense of the chaotic world outside of the locker room. Furthermore without giving anything away, I believe the ending was well thought out and had a great impact on the whole story.
Photograph Credit Pallasca Photography
The trio that makes ‘otherMother’ consists of the writer, Kelly Jones, the director, Anna Poole and the producer, Olivia Harris. The company provide us with entertainment and a subject that’s intended to raise discussion and debate. ‘Blud’ is a production that everyone should go and see due to the raw nature and the elements combined in the play.
other Mother company members
From left, writer, Kelly Jones, the director, Anna Poole and the producer, Olivia Harris.
Review Annie WMC by James Briggs
Annie the Musical is set in a rough girl’s orphanage in New York in 1933 and follows the rags-to-riches journey of 11-year-old orphan Annie, one which takes her to the top of American society where she and her optimism influences many orphans, adults and even the President Franklin D Roosevelt.
The main star of the musical tour is Strictly Come Dancing Judge Craig Revel Horwood. His performance couldn’t be any further from his judging persona on Strictly as he donned a frock for the part of the bully Miss Hannigan, the orphanage ‘mother’. Well we can safely say he has earned the right to be as harsh as he is on Strictly Come Dancing because he can act, dance and most definitely sing! When he made his first appearance in the show with his high heels and swinging hips you could see from the audience’s reaction we were in for a good night.
Craig Revel Horwood is supported by a very strong cast who have been moulded to perfection. Alex Bourne as billionaire Daddy Warbucks was perfect casting and he was suitably strict when he needed to be but yet soft-centred as the plot unfolded, with a passion it seemed for dancing.
Holly Dale Spencer was superb as Warbuck’s ever helpful and faithful secretary, who helps Annie to get out from the orphanage to live in his luxurious mansion.
It is also very important to mention the brother of Miss Hannigan, Rooster and his villainous cohort Lily. Rooster is played with convincing style and comic cunning by Jonny Fines and Lily by Djalenga Scott brings their relationship to life. The two come up with a dastardly plan in which they pose as Annie’s real parents in an attempt to bag a $50,000 reward.
The true and rightful star of the show was Annie herself. Played by the extremely talented Madeleine Haynes. Her voice was powerful and had a great vocal range. Annie the musical is littered with difficult ballads and she pulled them off with ease.
Due to the amount of shows that take place Madeleine is one of three Annie’s in one of the three teams of orphans in the show. I think it would also be right to mention all of Team Roxy because they did a fantastic job Rosanna Beacock (Molly), Scarlett Flannery (Pepper), Ashley Gold (Kate), Connie Burgess (July), Amelia Love Coleman (Duffy) and last but not least Lissy Mant (Tessie).
The dance routines throughout by the entire cast were second to none, although what else would you expect with Craig Revel Horwood choreographing.
It would be wrong to finish this review without of course mentioning the character in the show that impressed the audience with her skills, Amber, the highly talented dog who plays Sandy.
In the words of Craig Revel Horwood this show was “Fab-u-LOUS Darling!” and deserved the standing ovation from the Millennium audience. Make sure you get yourself over to see Annie on tour because if you do you can “Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow” you’ll have fun
Review Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, WMC by Barbara Michaels
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
Book by Jeffrey Lane
Music and lyrics: David Yazbek
Director and Choreographer: Jerry Mitchell
Reviewer: Barbara Michaels, Third Act Critic
Rating: ***
Based on the iconic film starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin, classified as “the funniest film of all time,” Dirty Rotten Scoundrels first hit the London stage as a musical a year ago. Telling the tale of a mega scam pulled by a couple of conmen on the French Riviera who pull out all the stops in a no holds barred contest in order to win the affections (and thus access to the money!) of a millionaire soap heiress, it’s harmless fun in today’s world beset by drug offences and more. Nothing is as it appears – reflected in an atmospheric and skilfully lit set where even the palm trees are manifestly fake!
There is no doubt whatsoever that as a comedy film starring Michael Caine and the wonderful comic actor Steve Martin Dirty Rotten Scoundrels worked wonderfully well; the question is, does it work as a musical?
The answer is yes – but only up to a point. A stage production has advantages and disadvantages over a film – two very different art forms cannot, and do not profess to be, identical. The snap, crackle and pop that characterised the 1988 film does not really get going in the stage version until the second half, when it suddenly finds it feet.
This is due in part to one of the major additions which writer Jeffrey Lane has made to the original film script i.e. the romance between Andre, the hapless and reluctant aide to camp of conman Lawrence Jameson, the conman responsible for laying the trap – or rather traps – to catch an heiress. As Lawrence, Michael Praed is suitably debonair and suave, but could at times be sharper off the mark, but as Andre old-timer Mark Benton has a masterly control of the comedic, delivering his lines with an inherent chuckle. As the object of his attentions, the ‘lady of a certain age’ Muriel – British as opposed to American as in the film – Geraldine Fitzgerald is a delight. The musical number ‘Like Zis/Like Zat’ which she sings with Benton is a gem, and fully justifies adding an additional element which, although it would have been superfluous in the film, greatly enhances the stage version.
Noel Sullivan, as the ‘innocent’ conman the susceptible and lovelorn Freddy whose misadventures are at the centre of the mayhem, performs with gusto. As Christine Colgate, the blonde- with- the- dosh , who is targeted by the conmen, Phoebe Coupe responded magnificently to the challenge , due to Carley Stenson being unwell in the first night at this venue, coming into her own in the hilariously funny ‘Love is My Legs’ in Act II.
A great ensemble performs the dance numbers with verve and expertise and showcases some wonderful costumes, reflecting the era in which the story is set. Overall a show to be enjoyed for what it is – entertainment, and not to be taken too seriously.
Runs until Saturday August 22nd at the Wales Millennium Centre.