TOP HAT Aldwych Theatre

I think it was Katharine Hepburn who said Fred Astaire gave Ginger Rogers class and she gave him sex. RKO’s Top Hat, which is generally considered their best film together, was hugely successful at the box office in 1935, thanks to their dazzling technique and Irving Berlin’s score, which included such standards as ‘Cheek to Cheek’ and ‘Isn’t This a Lovely Day (to be caught in the rain)’. Romantic musicals and wisecracking screwball comedies were the popular staple diet during the Depression era. Matthew White’s stage production, which adds 10 more Berlin songs, gets off to a terrific tap-dancing start; and there really is nothing like ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ and seeing the cast in top hats, white ties and tails, hammering away with canes, to raise the spirits instantly. But there is, of course, a major problem with the stage version: how will it stand-up without Fred and Ginger? Astaire’s engaging charm, his grace, elegance and lightness of touch are unforgettable. Tom Chambers (who won the 2008 Strictly Come Dancing competition) and Summer Strallen are, inevitably, not such a classy act. Nevertheless, Top Hat, with its full art deco treatment, will do very nicely as escapist entertainment for the nostalgic, older theatregoer.