Flamenco Flamen'ka - Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue

SYNOPSIS

Flamenco Flamen’ka

Audience members settling down for two hours of music and dancing in the Lyric Theatre would be forgiven for knowing the show’s director as the ‘harsh’ judge from BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. However, Craig Revel Horwood has an impressive list of theatrical credits and his new show Flamenco Flamen’ka transfers from the West End following a sell-out season in Paris. ‘Watch Flamenco? Live Flamen’ka!’ is the show’s tagline and gives West End audiences some clues as to what to expect.

The show’s creator, Karen Ruimy, doubles up as a dancer and narrator, telling the tale of two brothers who fall in love with the same girl – a “worker” at the narrator’s brothel. This has disastrous consequences and the company of 20 dancers and musicians tell the story of the passionate love triangle. The brothers face a devastating moral decision as to their priorities in life; their blood-ties or their love. Over the show’s running time, the audience see the company dance their way through the emotions of jealously, hate and sacrifice, climaxing with a heart-breaking tragedy.

Craig Revel Horwood’s West End debut was the highly acclaimed Spend Spend Spend which won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical in 2000, whilst Horwood’s choreography was nominated for the Olivier award for Best Choreography. He has since worked within regional theatre and has taken his choreography skills across the seas to South Africa, Holland, Denmark, France and Germany in various different productions. In 2002, the Commonwealth Games’ Opening Ceremony in Manchester was directed by Horwood which led him to be appointed choreographer for his most recent West End production, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, which starred Billy Zane and appeared at the Haymarket Theatre Royal. In television, Horwood is a judge of the hugely popular reality show Strictly Come Dancing and appears in the New Zealand version, Dancing with the Stars.

The show has had a mixture of reviews since arriving in the West End. Sanjoy Roy wrote in The Guardian that ‘it’s like Latin theme night on a cruise ship’. The Telegraph’s Sarah Crompton agreed saying ‘Flamenco Flamen’ka is one of the oddest things to hit the West End for some time’. However, Katie Colombus disagreed, commenting for The Stage that ‘the male contingency dances remarkably, stamping and posturing with fervour and pride’ whilst ‘the choreography shines, with a bold all-male tango... and some eye-catching sequences’.

Flamenco Flamen’ka appears at the Lyric Theatre from the 22nd September 2008 to 15th November 2008.