Music starred
Deirdre Tarrant
Good Morning, Mr Gershwin, St James Theatre, reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant
THIS show is primarily the work of Jose Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu blending their strengths in much the same way that George Gershwin did when he changed the musical palette of America and used a range of musical influences and styles.
The music is marvellous and the dancers are meticulous in their musicality throughout using mostly hip hop steps, and blending other styles. They danced with rhythm and precision.
Elements of humour and risqué vaudeville found their place against a huge film backdrop featuring naked dancers under water.
It was high impact with effective staging however it was tedious in its repetition. I was at the questioning stage when the evening changed to deliver a serious side in its look at the 1965 race riots of America and the unrest between black and white.
The hip hop style did not resonate and the obvious skills of the dancers could have drawn on a wider vocabulary to evoke the emotional turmoil seen on the screens.
The rich sound and tragedy of Gershwin’s only opera, Porgy and Bess, carried the evening to its close, using reality scenes shot in films of the time and two huge images of a crying baby and then the same baby smiling to break our hearts in summertime.
The dancers deserve full credit as they carried a relentless load of both technical steps and stage projection. They gave the festival a larger than life finale but ultimately it was the music that was the star of the show.
Thank you to the festival team and all those backstagers as well, Wellington really turned it on for March.
THIS show is primarily the work of Jose Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu blending their strengths in much the same way that George Gershwin did when he changed the musical palette of America and used a range of musical influences and styles.
The music is marvellous and the dancers are meticulous in their musicality throughout using mostly hip hop steps, and blending other styles. They danced with rhythm and precision.
Elements of humour and risqué vaudeville found their place against a huge film backdrop featuring naked dancers under water.
It was high impact with effective staging however it was tedious in its repetition. I was at the questioning stage when the evening changed to deliver a serious side in its look at the 1965 race riots of America and the unrest between black and white.
The hip hop style did not resonate and the obvious skills of the dancers could have drawn on a wider vocabulary to evoke the emotional turmoil seen on the screens.
The rich sound and tragedy of Gershwin’s only opera, Porgy and Bess, carried the evening to its close, using reality scenes shot in films of the time and two huge images of a crying baby and then the same baby smiling to break our hearts in summertime.
The dancers deserve full credit as they carried a relentless load of both technical steps and stage projection. They gave the festival a larger than life finale but ultimately it was the music that was the star of the show.
Thank you to the festival team and all those backstagers as well, Wellington really turned it on for March.
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