United Kingdom Showman – An Evening with Anton Du Beke: Anton Du Beke, Lance Ellington (vocalist), Laura Emmitt (vocalist/dancer), dancers and musicians. Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, 21.11.2024. (JPr)
Creatives:
Producers – Paul and Elizabeth Irving
Director/Choreographer – Anton Du Beke
Choreographer – Bill Deamer
Sound design – Pete Austin
Lighting design – Jose Lorenzo
Costume supervisor – Rachel Donoghue
Dancers – Kelly Chow (Dance Captain), Laura Emmitt, Luke Field-Wright, Billy Lawrence, Ellie O’Gorman, Rosie Ward
Musicians – Clive Dunstall (MD and piano), Sam Burgess (bass), Andy Greenwood (trumpet), Pat Hartley (trombone), Jeff Lardner (drums), Howard McGill (Saxophone/Flute), Tim Rose (guitar)
Explaining why his show must come to an end – after threatening a lock-in earlier – Anton Du Beke said how ‘the A12 is a bleedin’ nightmare’. We ourselves only just got there in time having been at a standstill on another Essex main road for a worrying length of time. After 2½ hours of the promised ‘Song – Dance – Laughter’ we wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else on a cold Autumn night. Anton must be aiming for the title of the UK’s hardest working entertainer because three days after this last performance of his Showman tour, he started a short Christmas one, to be followed – after Strictly Come Dancing Live! starting in January – by Musicals in March and Anton & Giovanni Together Again in June (for more Anton details and tickets click here).
Once again on taking our seats in the auditorium of the Cliffs Pavilion there are those large, illuminated letters on the stage which emphasise who we have come to see – ANTON. Soon the musicians enter behind an array of instruments at the back and the overture begins; ‘Bye, Bye, Blackbird’ and music from Guys and Dolls we’ll hear more from later in the show.
What follows is even less a ‘dance show’ than before and that is no bad thing as there are so many Strictly Come Dancing spin-offs these days and they can occasionally be a little samey. What Showman was, and Christmas and Musicals will undoubtedly be, is just an old-fashioned – and that’s no bad thing either – variety show of the sort I used to see at the London Palladium in years gone by. These were headlined by stars of stage and screen and one of those I saw there more than four decades ago (!) was legendary entertainer and presenter of the early years of Strictly, Sir Bruce Forsyth. With every new show it is clear how much Anton – as a dancer – learnt from watching him right from that first Strictly series 20 years ago. As I suggested last year, Anton is now a triple threat in his own right, singing some of his favourite songs, performing his signature dances, and making us laugh out loud with his quick-witted repartee with the audience. There are anecdotes again about his career, as well as other asides; however mildly risqué and longwinded they might very occasionally be. Anton is now a genuine showman in his own right and, as before, at the end of the evening I realised I would happily sit through it all again.
Though ANTON suggests it is all about him, it isn’t, because an important part of the success of Showman is the tight band of seven under Anton’s regular musical director/pianist Clive Dunstall, six supremely talented dancers, with one, Laura Emmitt, an accomplished singer too. Again – last, but in absolutely no way least – how wonderful to have Lance Ellington back again. As a singer he has always been the epitome of style and sophistication, in the same way Anton is as a dancer.
Laura’s ‘Le Jazz Hot!’ by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse, followed by Lance singing ‘It Don’t’ Mean a Thing’ by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong introduced the sparkling company swirling energetically around the stage. When it ended Anton remarked ‘Oh, I don’t know why we don’t start with a slowie’. The songs keep coming, as do the laughs often aimed in a harmless way at members of the audience, especially Lisa from Burnham-on-Crouch in the front row who, as relayed by Anton, thought she was ‘coming to see Ant & Dec!’ Then there are Q&A interludes, beginning with recalling his most memorable partners on Strictly: Ann Widdecombe, Ruth Langsford, Nancy Dell’Olio, Kate Derham and Patsy Palmer. Anton and his dance partner, Rosie Ward, demonstrated and then performed a typically elegant Viennese Waltz. The first half ended with a Fosse-inspired routine to ‘Bye. Bye, Blackbird’, ‘Steam Heat’ and ‘Rhythm of Life’.
After the interval was one of the highlights of Showman, as Laura kicked-off (!) the energy-sapping, toe-tapping ‘42nd Street’. After singing Irving Berlin’s ‘Let Yourself Go’ with Anton, Lance got a well-deserved solo moment in the spotlight with an impassioned ‘This is The Moment’ from the musical Jekyll & Hyde. After more wonderful dancing, including a passionate paso doble, it was time for more questions and when asked what dance steps by a Strictly celebrity make him ‘wince’ the most Anton responded, ‘Most of them really … anything Samba [pronounced Saaamba] makes me feel a bit nauseous’. Lance piped up ‘Didn’t you have exploding maracas once?’ as Anton reminisced ‘It comes to something when all you have left is exploding maracas.’ Anton revealed how he enjoys being a judge on Strictly now because it means he’s there for the final every time when before there was ‘the moment of inevitability’ about his exit from the competition. He gave 88-year-old Dorothy the lasting memory of being waltzed through the audience, before we heard about Rick who had just flown in from Florida and brought his mum to see Anton as she ‘loves a bit of Strictly’ whilst ‘he’s never heard of it … or you!’
Anton and Lance then paid homage to their favourite singers, Sammy Davis Jr, Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé and Frank Sinatra, while West End star Laura gave barnstorming renditions of Barbra Streisand’s ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’ and ‘I’m the Greatest Star’ from Funny Girl. Time then for the finale which brought everyone back onstage for a little bit of community singing as everyone got to their feet to join in with ‘New York, New York’ and give Showman – An Evening with Anton Du Beke the ovation it thoroughly deserved.
Jim Pritchard