United Kingdom Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance – A Lifetime of Standing Ovations: Cliffs Pavilion, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, 8.10.2024. (JPr)
When you have in the title of this self-congratulatory show ‘a lifetime of standing ovations’ it is clear what it is all aiming towards and indeed while there was a lot of whooping and hollering, pantomime booing, some clapping along, there was no sign of the vaunted standing ovation until the very, very end.
Who knew before coming to Lord of the Dance – if you hadn’t seen it before – that there was going to be something of a story to follow? It was outlined in the glossy souvenir programme thus: ‘The Lord of the Dance story emerges from the dreams of the Little Spirit. It is a classic tale of good versus evil. In her dream the Lord of the Dance represents all things good in the world but me must fight against evil in the form of The Dark Lord (Joseph Howarth) and his army of Warlords.’ There is also Morrighan the Temptress (Olivia Allen) who ‘comes between the Lord and his true love Saoirse [Tiernagh Canning]’ and Erin the Goddess (Celyn Cartwright) who ‘puts into song the words that the dances express.’ The Dark Lord must be defeated it seems so that the world of dance has a future.
All this hints at rather more sophisticated storytelling than we actually see on the stage where we are taken into a futuristic, militaristic world where the Dark Lord and his warlords stomp about like the cybermen in BBC TV’s Dr Who. Those combatting them is the Lord himself (Matt Smith, a Michael Flatley young look- and dance-alike) who is surrounded by some uber-attractive male and female dancers. Apparently, it was essential to the story and the fight between good and evil to have the women remove their colourful, scintillating costumes at one point to dance in Victoria’s Secret underwear. Then at another pivotal moment of the story (!) for the men to take their tops off as if this was a Magic Mike (or Magic O’Mícheál?) extravaganza.
It’s a relatively short show of two 45-minute halves. The plot – such as it is – plays out piecemeal in various scenes across its modest length together with songs in Gaelic and English, musical interludes from two fiddle players (Giada Costenaro Cunningham and Helena Gullan) …and much, much, much Irish tap dancing with all the original music for the flailing legs composed by Gerard Fahey. It opens after some sort of druidic ceremony with the Little Spirit (Cassidy Ludwig) – initially an endearing figure top to toe in embellished gold – sitting centre stage playing the title song ‘Lord of the Dance’ (a hymn written by Sydney Carter in 1963) on a penny whistle. By the time it is repeated the umpteenth time you find it hard to suppress a cheer when the Dark Lord snaps the instrument in two, before the Lord all too quickly repairs it!
The glory of the show is the huge stage-wide LED screen with the ever-changing images of the fantasy world we have entered: often the Lord’s pastoral idyll (with fluttering butterflies) or the hell-like world of the Dark Lord. Recorded music supports the percussively insistent foot-tapping (also pre-recorded I believe) though it seemed the two violinists played live. The hyperactive dancers – seemingly powered by Duracell – return to the stage time and again to line-up or face-off and repeat many of the same steps; with the ‘Lightning bolt’ – also made famous by the eponymous Usain, the former athlete – becoming the Lord’s favourite pose.
Obviously, everyone has to look as if they are having a great time, and I hope they are. Certainly, the company of, mostly ever-smiley, dancers’ apparent joy of performing spread to the audience in the end and they got their standing ovation. Was it deserved? Well, maybe yes, for all their talent and inexhaustible energy, though perhaps not for the rather odd show itself.
Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance show in its various incarnations has been touring the world since 1996. Listed as ‘Creator, Producer, Director & Choreographer’ Michael came to fame with Riverdance which was first seen during the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. As marvellous of that was, I doubt anybody at the time would realise the phenomenon it would become and the worldwide fame it would bring Michael. He still tops and tails Lord of the Dance firstly as a disembodied voice accompanying some video film talking about his background in dance and how his dance teacher used to tie his arms to his sides with a belt (Strictly are you listening in?) when he wanted to dance free. So, he began to create his own form of Irish dance and eventually Lord of the Dance ‘the biggest selling dance show of all time’ was born. Michael himself made his final appearance with the show in 2016 but lives on in film and three Michaels have a light-hearted dance-off near the end showing him in his heyday.
Jim Pritchard
Featured Image: Company of Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance
For more about the ongoing tour of Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance click here.