The Red Shoes - musical and ballet

Edwina was in the audience just next to us, looking rather amazing and chatting and smiling. Not a tut in sight in the whole show, but a lot of nods to a lot of ballets the complete history of dance is in there somewhere. If there is a fault it is that it is too short, and rushes through the drama. But that drama is good.

I saw this on opening night in Plymouth. I absolutely adored it. I was first on my feet at the end. Gorgeous score and stunning production. I tweeted Matthew and asked if they will release the soundtrack and he said he hoped to in the new year.

I'm seeing this in April and it'll be a first for me, watching ballet so thanks for your review crabtree - I'm now looking forward to it even more than I was before!

I saw it on Friday evening and was thrilled by it. Sir Matthew is back in top form after a few years of artistically treading water, he has come up with a full evening narrative ballet that is satisfying on every level.

Bourne does dance theatre / modern dance, not ballet. Guess that doesn't really matter, but it's a bit like calling Wicked an opera.

I'm seeing this tomorrow but haven't seen the film before, so I'll be reading up on the plot before going in - sounds like people who know the film get more out of the show.

I booked this last May, as my first foray into ballet/modern ballet and even booked a box much to my partner's delight! Roll on April, everything I'm hearing is all good!

I saw this last night and absolutely loved it.

Negative bit out of the way first - though it's minor! We were in the front row, which I always try and get, particularly for dance, and realised after 5 seconds that we would not be able to focus on beautiful insteps as we couldn't see them! Always a bit of a risk I know but, to be honest, the dancers weren't the highly technically skilled Russians/Cubans/Americans/British/Spanish that you see in the more classical shows anyway, so I got over it quickly as there really was so much else to look at!

We had a fantastic view of the orchestra, though I hardly glanced at them as the action on the stage was all-encompassing. The best bit of being so close was the gorgeous, sumptuous costumes. I could actually smell them! Also, the expressions on the dancers' faces, particularly in the "Oh god, have we GOT to do this tedious ballet?" scenes were hilarious.

The production was slick (only one kick in the face!) and there's a scene where Victoria dances in her pointe shoes with her ribbons undone (on purpose) which had our hearts in our mouths, being so close. It was brilliantly done.

The set and effects were stunning. There's an amazingly realistic storm scene which brought us in the front row so virtually into it that it played havoc with our eyes - one member of my group actually had to stop looking and focus elsewhere! The girls' costumes, black gypsy-style dresses, somehow melded in and became one with the black leaves which were projected swirling around the white background. The effect was simply mesmerising.

It definitely was less Bournesque than others I've seen and had something for everyone. Fantastico!

This is coming back to The Lowry for another week in July so Ive booked.

My first ever ballet!

Oh Burly, I saw it a few weeks ago and it was mesmerising!

The scene where the Shoemaker taunts, tempts and teases Vicky with the Red Shoes in the the 1st act gave me goose bumps! It was simply stunning but the 2nd act ended far too soon. I've already booked to see Cinderella next March, again in Bristol. 

Hope you like it too x

Quite good that isn't it?

Loved the design, gorgeous visuals and music. As duncan said about I know nowt about dance so can't comment but it looked ok!

The one who played the star who injured her ankle was fab. Great face. Very Joan Crawford.

BUT.... I haven't seen the film and I lost the plot a bit. So she gets job as new star, goes into The Red Shoes where she's a huge hit. We know the red shoes make her feel a bit funny. End of act 1.

Act 2 she's on the skids in a seedy east end strip joint with showgirls and a couple of sand dancers. What happened?

There was more about that in the film, so it wasn't as obvious in the ballet. In the film, the main ballerina wasn't injured, she announced she was getting married, and Lermontov blew his top and kicked her out, saying that a ballerina had to be married to her art and couldn't love dance and a man at the same time. So Irina being sacked gave Vicky her big chance and made her a star, but when she fell in love with Julian, Lermontov made her choose ballet or marriage, so she chose ballet, hence the decline to cheap music halls. But the red shoes had captured her and she couldn't resist going back to the ballet again, but Julian and Lermontov were both trying to force her to choose between them, so the red shoes forced her off the balcony onto the train tracks.

I loved the ballet version! I really loved how they distinguished between the dancer characters and the non dancer characters, even though they all danced. I saw Dominic North as Julian and I thought he was sensational. I loved the Red Shoes ballet too, it was fabulous.