Packed with rock’n’hits of the 60’s, Save the Last Dance for me is not just another reflective vintage musical, it’s a show packed with high energy routines, iconic songs with a dynamic cast and a live band.
Save the Last Dance for Me successfully recreates the sound of the great rock’n’roll hits such as Viva Las Vegas, Teenager In Love, Then He Kissed Me, Please Mr Postman, Way Down Yonder In New Orleans and of course the title song.
It’s wrapped around a believable story underpinning issues of sex and racism in the 60’s, yet at the same time its laced with wonderful comedic moments that every child of the 60’s can relate to.
Told through the hits of Pumus and Shuman it follows the summer holiday romance of a teenager in Lowestoft. Staying in a caravan, with her older more worldly sister she is on her first holiday without her parents and for her life’s great adventures are about to begin.
With not much entertainment on offer only “Summer Holiday” at the local cinema or the prospect of eating an ice cream cornet in the pouring rain in a seafront shelter their holiday is not going as planned until they meet the womanising G.I. Milton. He invites them to the local US air base and that’s when the fun really begins and the 17-year-old Marie meets a coloured GI stationed there and falls madly in love.
Her sister, Jennifer, after a short fling with Milton decides to put her eggs in one basket and play safe and goes for the ice-cream man from Birmingham, she doesn’t want a repetition of her romance with the Butlin’s Redcoat who she caught in bed with a sword swallower!
There’s an outstanding performance from Wayne Robinson as GI Curtis. He’s warm, passionate, tender and has great charisma, He excels in the vocals alongside Elizabeth Carter, the perfect sugary sweet Marie, together they are the perfect dream team.
Antony Costa’s a-different-gal-every-week character, the womanising Milton is so believable and he pulls a punch, as you would expect him to do, in those 60’s hits.
Lola Sauder’s as Jennifer, belts out those 60’s hits as just as they should sung and brings girlie comedy into the equation when she tells her sister to “keep her hand on her halfpenny” bringing roars of laughter from ladies of a certain age in the audience, who had presumably had that warning given to them in their dim but distant pasts. And the house erupts when she asks Milton for a “fag” and the English/American word meanings come to the fore.
Alan Howell’s, thick as a brick Birmingham accent, makes his character, Carlo, so funny with his great comedy timing he has some of the best one liners in the show plus an ice cream van which he doesn’t know how to turn off the chimes on!
Teamwork is the essence of the success of this musical and the stars of the night are the multi-talented ensemble who sing, dance and play around 30 numbers including show stopping a cappella versions of Sweet for My Sweet and Hushabye.
Save The Last Dance for Me has an enormous feel good factor. It’s a show where the audience know the words to the songs as well as the cast do and they aren’t afraid to sing along with them.
This show has its audience seat dancing from curtain up until the finale when most of them throw caution to the wind as they can’t resist the temptation to dance in the aisles. And before you ask yes I did.
Runs at the Grand Theatre, Leeds till 18 June
Liz Coggins