Top Hat

Congress Theatre, Carlisle Road, Eastbourne, Tuesday, July 21, to Saturday, July 25

AFTER they worked together on the 1935 film Top Hat, Fred Astaire christened his co-star Ginger Rogers “Feathers” following an on-set incident during the iconic Cheek To Cheek dance.

In her 1955 autobiography My Story Rogers describes the lead up to the famous falling out, when she decided to create her own dress using ostrich feathers.

“I was determined to wear this dress come hell or high water,” she said “And why not? It moved beautifully.”

When the golden couple danced together the dress promptly shed feathers across the set –as Astaire was later to describe: “like a chicken attacked by a coyote”. It led to an onset bust up, leading to Astaire’s affectionate nickname for his co-star. The feathers can still be seen floating about in the final recorded print of the scene.

Now 80 years on, a recreated feather dress is still causing problems for the leads of the touring version of the triple Olivier Award-winning West End show.

“The feathers fall off all the time,” says Charlotte Gooch, who plays Dale Tremont, the part Rogers made famous. “They moult so much the crew has to go around after the show and collect them up to stick back on.

“When it was brand new the feathers were falling off all the time – you could see people in the front row trying to catch them like bubbles.”

The dress has caused problems with Gooch too during performance.

“The feathers get stuck on my face,” she says from her dressing room at Bromley’s Churchill Theatre. “I had some stick in my head mic a couple of weeks ago. Last Friday one of the big feathers on the shoulder got stuck in my mouth. We’ve not quite had the drama that Fred had on set though.”

In fact both Gooch and co-star Alan Burkitt, who plays Astaire’s role Jerry Travers, are happy to admit they are enjoying the job of a lifetime.

“It transports the audience back to the golden era of Hollywood,” says Gooch. “It’s another world, so romantic and beautiful with the costumes and Irving Berlin’s music.”

“I’m never going to get a job like this again,” adds Burkitt, who while studying at the Deborah Capon School was named the All England Tap Dancer Of The Year.

Audiences at Chichester may recognise him from his role in another Hollywood golden age tale – Singin’ In The Rain - while Gooch last visited Eastbourne with the touring musical Grease.

The pair first met performing in the German tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats five years ago.

It has helped build up their relationship as they try to recreate one of the most famous onscreen partnerships of all time.

“You don’t get much better than Fred and Ginger,” says Gooch. “There are so few leading roles where you get to sing, dance and act to the full range of your ability. You have to push yourself to the extreme.

“What made Fred and Ginger work was the chemistry – there was something unique about that – we had to find that for ourselves.”

“When you watch dancers you should never think they know what they are doing next,” says Burkitt. “Fred and Ginger moved together seamlessly – it’s what we strive towards. It should all just flow.

“The director didn’t want us to be a tribute or imitation of Fred and Ginger – we never could be. He wanted our individual take on it.”

The relationship between the characters of happy bachelor Travers and society girl Tremont is at the heart of Top Hat.

Meeting after Travers’s tap dancing wakes up a sleeping Tremont in the hotel room below, the musical follows their relationship on a tour across Europe through initial attraction to a case of mistaken identity which looks set to tear the two asunder.

The story itself is pure froth, with Travers a sunny Bertie Wooster-esque playboy dandy – albeit with better dance moves – while elegant Tremont’s life revolves around parties and the clothes she is asked to wear by the world’s finest designers.

The production oozes with class and finesse, from the beautifully designed wardrobe, to the carefully choreographed dance scenes, to the grand sets recreating an art deco-inspired London and Venice.

No expense has been spared on the touring show – which features a cast of 29, augmented by 12 musicians and a full crew bringing the full touring complement to more than 50.

“The big message we have been trying to get out there is this is the West End production,” says Burkitt.

“There has been no scrimping and saving. The handmade costumes which won the Olivier Award are all here.”

“We don’t want to give a sub-version,” adds Gooch, who is reprising her West End role, having taken over from original star Summer Strallen at the Aldwych Theatre in 2012.

Burkitt was the understudy for Travers on the West End, covering for both Tom Chambers and Gavin Lee. The night he stood in for Lee on press night was captured by the Channel Four fly-on-the-wall documentary The Sound Of Musicals.

“A lot of the musicians have come with us from the West End,” says Gooch. “In this cast there are four actors who have stayed with the show since it first started in Milton Keynes four years ago – they’ve stayed through the whole journey.”

Both actors admit the logistics for such a mammoth tour can be tough, with such a huge set and crew to transport.

“It can be a bit of a squash sometimes,” says Gooch. “We are all right because we always get our own rooms, but the crew and tech staff get the rough end of the deal!

“We all find somewhere to live backstage though.”

With such a fast-moving show that space can be very important, as the cast of singers and dancers have to go through quick but complex costume changes.

“People can be seen tearing off their costumes,” says Burkitt. “It’s not just the clothes – we have mics on our shoes to capture the sound of the taps, rather than having microphones on the stage. There are wires going up through your legs to a battery pack at the back of your trousers. That can all get in a bit of a tangle!”

Gooch admits to feeling like a princess in some of the costumes though, which have all been made to fit the specific actors.

Another major aspect of the show is the music. While Fred and Ginger’s original film only had five songs, this show takes 15 from deep into the Irving Berlin songbook, including favourites Puttin’ On The Ritz, Top Hat, White Tie And Tails and Let’s Face The Music And Dance.

“People recognise every song,” says Gooch. “They are timeless.”

“When they start you can see the audience start swaying and singing along,” adds Burkitt.

“They are brilliant songs, I’ve been singing them for a year now and I’m still not bored with the show. Our musical director Jae Alexander is fantastic – every night the orchestra sounds so full and epic.”

And there is also the comedy – with the second half of the show turning into something of a farce set against a Venetian backdrop.

Central to these comedic moments are the quartet of Travers’ married friend Horace Hardwick - played with impeccable comic timing by TV regular Clive Hayward; Rebecca Thornhill as his long-suffering wife Madge; Sebastien Torkia as the fiery Italian designer Alberto; and John Conroy as comedy butler Bates.

It adds to the sense of a feelgood romp.

In developing the two central characters director Matthew White gave the leads a stack of films from the period.

“There was a lot of Noel Coward material other than the Fred and Ginger stuff,” says Gooch. “We were looking at that genre of comedy.”

“The second half becomes so quick and farcical,” says Burkitt, whose Travers drifts through most of the misunderstandings with an unflappable smile on his face. “Many of the audience are in hysterics. “So many guys come to the show and start off with their arms crossed - by the end they are guffawing. So many say to me afterwards it’s the best thing they have ever seen – it’s nice that guys like dance now.”

Both believe the influence of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing has helped make Top Hat a hit.

“It has put a new lease of life into the musical,” says Burkitt.

“More people will choose to go and see a dance musical or show than they would pre-Strictly,” adds Gooch. “We’ve had Singin’ In The Rain come back, and in the US they’re bringing back On The Town and An American In Paris.”

And the pair are taking Top Hat even further after their Eastbourne dates – with the whole tour heading out to Japan for four weeks.

“It’s going to be exciting to see another part of the world,” says Gooch. “We’ve heard from other shows that Japanese audiences don’t tend to laugh out loud, which could be interesting for the parts involving Horace and Bates as a lot of their script is designed to get laughs.

“But that’s just one layer of the show. We’re expecting they will love the style of it – we’ve heard there is a huge fan base.”

As for the future Burkitt admits once the Japanese tour is over they will probably want to take a rest and reflect on what they have achieved.

“I don’t want to rush into another job,” he says. “The intensity of this job is hard.”

“Besides we’ve got our pubs and clubs tour lined up,” adds Gooch.

“Top Hat can be a marathon – especially when we have matinee shows as well.

“Once the music kicks in you have to go out there and it’s all or nothing. We don’t want to let the audience down.”

Starts 7.30pm, 2.30pm matinees Wed, Thurs and Sat, tickets from £30. Call 01323 412000.