Strictly Ballroom - WYP / Piccadilly / Tour

No surprises there. Had lots of potential but the whole thing just fell flat.

Didn't like this much. It had a strange resistance to be a musical; Will Young showboating through the show was a little irritating; it had an odd and ugly set that limited the amount of space for dancing.

It would always be a difficult sell without the Will Young fan club in every night. I don't think Matt Cardle has the same sort of fan base.

Totally agree - what a dissapointment it was. Zzzzzzz

Another theatre confirmed free!

Payment for posts?? Please enlarge on why you say that.

What rumour? 

Just to say, the film version of this (and also Kinky Boots) are currently free to watch/download on iPlayer.

Made a return visit to the show last night through one of the many ticket offers. Front row Stalls, excellent view due to the low stage and much better leg room than the Dress Circle. Still a very cramped seat, as the show attracts many larger ladies.

Only one of the three leads (Zizi Strallen) was on.

Justin-Lee Jones was on as Wally Strand (unadvertised). Sang very well, better than Will Young, although had the annoying but now common tendency to not pronounce the end of a lot of the words. Australian accent for the spoken parts, but not the sung ones. Stayed largely out of the way. He did have a Matt Cardle joke.

Dale White was on as Scott Hastings. He was good.

Not sure which other covers were on. I didn't see cast lists or announcements about the covers anywhere, although I'm sure there must have been.

A little disappointed not to see Matt Cardle (I doubt I'll attend again), but no complaints about the replacement cast. And with the way Wally was played, the show really doesn't need a star in that role.

There was a forced attempt to get a standing ovation at the end, which didn't really work, although a few people did get up.

Upper Circle looked like it was closed. The other levels looked fairly full.

Watchable enough. It has grown on me since I first saw it on Australia.

Finally saw the matinee today. Really, really enjoyed it. Liam Marcellino was on for Scott, you wouldn’t know he wasn’t the lead. Zizi was perfect, it really was her show in my opinion. Amazing choreography.
Matt Cardle really surprised and impressed me. A great voice and actually played Wally as a character - I was concerned it would just be a bit of an unnecessary part. I did like how the narrator did the singing as it allowed much more intense dancing from the principals. Didn’t see the show’s previous incarnation, but I can’t imagine such impressive dancing if the leads had to sing too. And the songs were great, how they fitted to the emotions the characters feel was very well placed. A jukebox musical that I’m overall impressed with. As they doing a very good student rate Monday to Friday at £25 tickets (including the premium seats) I will hopefully go back before the run ends. It’s the sort of show that I can imagine being a guilty pleasure and is just uplifting and heartwarming if that is what you’re looking for.

It's just been revealed Zizi will not be performing from the 15th to the 20th, the second to last week of the run.

I finally caught up with this show yesterday and it’s a lot of fun (particularly if you’ve seen the film which I rewatched last week). Anna Francolini does a great comic turn and the dancing is superb. Glad I saw it, but the circle seat I was in was very low, I felt as if I was sitting on the floor!