BALLROOM BLITZ
Cult-favourite film gets theatre revival more than two decades later,
Strictly Ballroom the Musicalis about loving something with all your heart, even if it is “a feathered, sequined, bonkers place.”
Director and choreographer Drew McOnie describes the musical’s opening number, which introduces all the characters in the story of competitive amateur ballroom dancing, as portraying “the zany anarchy that runs through the place.”
“The stakes are high in there. It’s a glorious opportunity to see a community where dance is so important it is worth losing your family over.”
Begun as a student play when director Baz Luhrmann was at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, Australia, in 1984, Strictly Ballroom developed into a movie with a cult following that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992.
Lastly, it became the stage musical that cha cha’s onto the Princess of Wales stage Wednesday in its North American premiere. It is a joint pro- duction of David Mirvish and Global Creatures in association with the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Designed by Luhrmann’s spouse and artistic collaborator, Catherine Martin, it delves more deeply into the characters than the movie did and contains new songs written by current pop songwriters, including Sia, David Foster and Eddie Perfect.
It is still set in Australia in 1985, a time of really big hair and garish costumes, with hit songs like “Time After Time” and “Love Is in the Air.”
McOnie, who directed the musical in Leeds, England, says the advice he received from Luhrmann (currently up to his elbows in The Get Down on Netflix) was to keep the “heart” in the story. This is not a satire but a love letter to those who follow their dreams into dance competitions, says McOnie, noting that audiences dance in the aisles at the end of each show.
“We wanted to bring the level of heart to show why the characters care so much. Everyone’s absolutely bonkers. But the comedy comes from the heart.” That is also what Luhrmann stressed in his advice to the musical’s stars, Sam Lips and Gemma Sutton, who portray Scott and Fran.
Scott is the up-and-coming competition star and Fran, the daughter of Spanish immigrants, is the cleaner at the club whose Latin heritage includes excellent paso doble skills.
McOnie sums up the plot as a combination of David and Goliath and The Ugly Duckling.
Scott takes on the establishment when he breaks the rules to dance his own way. Fran blossoms from the timid onlooker to the fiery queen of the dance floor — once she loses the glasses and frizzy hairdo.
Lips says he worked at making Scott likable and relatable. Scott’s story is more about “dancing his own story” than winning prizes, says Lips.
“He just loves to dance. He decides to just follow his bliss.”
The son of competitive dancers, Scott starts to realize “maybe I’m not what I’ve been told,” Lips says.
This is a common coming of age awakening, he says, when the person starts to strike out on their own and realizes “they can’t go back.”
An American who recently starred in Pippin for the U.S. tour, Lips is thrilled by the new songs written for the musical. He has a solo, “On the Edge,” and many duets and group songs that he says always advance the story.
Tina Sparkle is Fran’s nemesis, the flashy, shallow star of the competitive dance world.
It is Scott’s realization that he has been choosing flash over what is “real and authentic” that is the turning point in the story, they both say.
Fran’s world is more fully drawn than in the movie, Sutton says, as we visit the supportive home of her father and grandmother, and learn that Fran’s deceased mother was a great dancer, too. Fran is not some meek church mouse but a woman “without vanity” who is willing to explore her world, says Sutton.
“She’s open to meeting new people. She’s working in a milk bar at the back of the studio in Melbourne and this whole world opens up before her.”
She sums up Fran’s life motto: “Keep your ears and eyes open to new experiences and see where it takes you.”
To the dance floor, perhaps? Strictly Ballroom the Musical is at the Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King St. W., April 26 to June 30. See mirvish.com or call 416-872-1212.