Show review: Top Hat

My main problem with Top Hat is how mind-bogglingly long it was.  Two-and-a-half hours (interval thankfully included) of a one-note story from 1935.

Back then, you’d only have gone to see Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their glitzy pomp.  Over 90 years later there’s not much to recommend it.  Times and attitudes have changed, so it felt uncomfortable to watch a man aggressively pursuing a woman who clearly wasn’t interested (until – hey presto – she suddenly was!).

There were the usual tired tropes about philandering husbands and hated wives spending too much money.  There’s an Italian stereotype-character whose feelings get horribly trampled on at the end.  But that’s OK, because he’s only an Italian – or at least that’s what the show seemed to suggest.

I’m making it sound awful, which it wasn’t really.  Top Hat looked and sounded incredible, but it’s just woefully out-of-date.

Though I will say, this show – and the audience – made me feel a lot less old, which was an uplifting plus.

Read my full review here.