Tip Top Tap Dancing and Tunes by Irving Berlin

“I went to a funeral and caught the bouquet!”

Horace

Top Hat started life as a 1935 movie with the dancing talents of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It is only in recent years (2011) that the staged musical which had some of Irving Berlin’s famous tunes added to it, was conceived.

It is a very ambitious undertaking for a small dinner theatre like The Mill at Sonning to put it on, but with song and dance professionals Jonny Labey as Jerry Travers, and Billie-Kay as Dale Tremont, it is a breeze!

The wonderful Art Deco set was made especially for the theatre and the colours change for each of the three locations, Paris, London and the Venetian Lido.

The story is pretty easy to follow: Broadway star dancer Jerry Travers meets model Dale Tremont when she complains about him tap dancing, in her hotel on the floor above her room. Through a misunderstanding about some flowers sent to her, she thinks he is being unfaithful to her friend Madge (Julie J Nagle), and is a married man. Madge’s husband Horace Hardwick (Paul Kemble) is Travers’s manager. Dale agrees to fly to Italy with her Italian fashion designer and suitor Alberto Beddini (Andy Rees) and accepts his proposal of marriage. Thank goodness Hardwick’s enterprising butler Bates (Brendan Cull) is there to save the day.

The Irving Berlin tunes are to die for. From the Overture introduction we know we are in for a musical treat, the first delight being “Puttin’ on the Ritz”. The penultimate song is the wildly romantic, “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” but in between we have “Top Hat, White Tie and Tails”, “Wild About You” and “Cheek to Cheek”.

Jonny Labey is a tap dancer par excellence; Billie-Kay is his match. No seat in the Mill is more than six rows from the stage and all seats have great sightlines. He is also a fine actor with a gift for comedy.

You will love the period set detailing and the glorious costumes. You’ll thirst for the onstage cocktails cleverly made not to spill when danced with! Of course there is an army of maids and hotel porters in perfect uniforms who quick change to double as hotel guests and rich Venetians.

In “Cheek to Cheek” Billie-Kay as Dale Tremont wears a frock, the skirt covered in ostrich feathers similar to the one Ginger Rogers wore which got up Fred Astaire’s nose! The original had $1000 of ostrich feathers, some of which flew off as Astaire threw Rogers about. In his autobiography Astaire described the incident as looking like “a chicken had been attacked by a coyote”.

Well the Mill’s wardrobe have ensured their feathers stay on! You may have heard the jokes before but they still make you smile. Enjoy this spectacular seasonal treat in Sonning as everyone did the day we saw it.

Lizzie Loveridge

Musical Numbers

Act One

Overture

Puttin’ On The Ritz

No Strings

Hotel Sequence

I’m Putting All My Eggs in One

Basket

Isn’t This A Lovely Day

(To Be Caught In The Rain)

You’re Easy To Dance With

What Is Love?

Top Hat, White Tie And Tails

Act Two

Entr’acte

The Piccolino

Non Scacciarmi Mai (Part 1)

Non Scacciarmi Mai (Part 2)

Piccolino Waiter’s Reprise

Wild About You

Cheek To Cheek

Better Luck Next Time

Latins Know How

Let’s Face The Music And Dance

Outside Of That I Love You

Finale

Production Notes

Top Hat

Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

Based on the RKO Motion Picture

Book by Matthew White and Howard Jacques

Directed by Jonathan O’Boyle

Cast

Starring:

Andy Rees

Billie-Kay

Brendan Cull

Jonny Labey

Julia J Nagle

Paul Kemble

With:

Hannah Amin

Joe Boyle

George Deller

Nathan Elwick

Gabriela Gregorian

Leah Harris

Reece Kerridge

Greta McKinnon

Creatives

Director: Jonathan O’Boyle

Choreographer: Ashley Nottingham

Set Designer: Jason Denvir

Costume Designer: Natalie Titchener

Musical Arranger and Director: Francis Goodhand

Lighting Designer: Nic Farman

Sound Designer: Chris Whybrow

Information

Running Time: Two hours 35 minutes with an interval

Booking until 30th December 2021

Theatre:

The Mill at Sonning Theatre

Sonning Eye

Reading

RG4 6TY

Website: millatsonning.com

Box Office: (0118) 969 8000

Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge

at the Mill at Sonning

on 26th November 2022