United Kingdom Amy & Carlos REBORN: Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, 11.3.2025. (JPr)
Dancers:
Amy Dowden & Carlos Gu
Jake Leigh, Diana Cojocar, Loyd Griffiths, Polina Mayer, Oliver Beardmore, Jesscia Lewis
Singer:
Andrea Grant
Creatives:
Creative director – Elizabeth Honan
Choreography – Neil Jones
Additional Choreography – Leandro Palou and Maria Tsiatsiani
Musical director – Bobby Goulder
Lighting designer – Adam King
Sound designer – Andrew Hunt
Costume designer – Bradley Dykes for Studio Armell
It must be admitted there is a lot of competition with Strictly Come Dancing-related shows during the hiatus between its autumn seasons. However, Amy & Carlos REBORN possibly deserves to be coming to a theatre near you more than some as it allows you to celebrate Amy Dowden’s return to what she clearly loves doing so very much. In the souvenir programme Amy reflects on her well-publicised health issues: ‘I had my identity stripped away from me when I had my cancer treatment … I wasn’t able to dance and I didn’t know what my outcome was going to be. I’ve definitely become a new person because I don’t think anybody is truly the same after they’ve had cancer … I’ve become a better version of myself, a warrior version of Amy, so I definitely feel reborn and I look at life differently now.’ For Carlos Gu it was his move to the UK from China and a career change from competitive dance work to being on TV; he continues, about how he too is ‘a new, different version of myself because of the environment I’m in and because of the challenge of the work I’m doing over here.’
Amy & Carlos REBORN is a typically fast and furious show – from creative director Elizabeth Honan and choreographers Strictly’s Neil Jones, Leandro Palou and Maria Tsiatsiani – of duets and high-energy ensemble routines. There is a simple, basically black, set with just a few steps to a platform in front of a curtain, atmospheric lighting effects from Adam King, and some rapid changes of the often sparkly and colourful costumes. There is no live music, though Andrea Grant (from Strictly and much more) is very involved in the show supporting the dancing with her powerful vocals and – more surprisingly – Carlos also reveals his pleasant singing voice. Otherwise, music director Bobby Goulder has provided bespoke arrangements and recordings using live instruments and backing vocalists. Actually, these backing tracks are so good that you could be forgiven for thinking – as I did initially – that there was a backstage band.
As with all these shows there is a feeling you have seen many of the routines before – and some earlier the same evening – but Amy and Carlos and the other six dancers are so high-spirited and talented that their obvious love and passion for performing means REBORN is like a helter-skelter ride you have been thrilled to be on.
As the show unfolds we do get to know both Amy and Carlos better, first off is Amy’s love of disco (cue ‘One Night Only’) and Carlos’s favourite type of dance is flamenco because it is ‘so dramatic’ (which, in the best possible way, sums up Carlos himself!). Amy is grateful for the many opportunities Strictly has given her since 2017 and in Carlos – who joined in 2022 – she has found ‘A new brother for life’. Audience participation is encouraged especially when the two try to get everybody foot stamping, clapping and shimmying in our seats for the cha-cha-cha. With her soulful voice Andrea Grant was born to sing Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary’ and so it proves as the company of six dancers do an energetic jive.
In my recent review of a recent performance of Chicago at the Cliffs Pavilion I wrote that as a musical ‘it is in danger of becoming Fosse-ilised. Particularly as Fosse’s choreography is now over-familiar from Strictly Come Dancing; and every related touring dance show you will see.’ You can now add REBORN to that as Carlos pays tribute to the legendary choreographer Bob Fosse, singing (!) and leading the company in a Fosse-esque ‘Mein Herr’ from his Cabaret and the first half ends with an exuberant Charleston to ‘All That Jazz’ (Chicago itself).
Returning after the interval we get back into the swing (!) of things with Carlos’s rendition of ‘Sing Sing Sing’ before briefly the mostly upbeat dancing pauses for Amy and Carlos’s sultry Argentine tango to ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’. Then it was back to Fosse as Carlos ushers in the singing and dancing of ‘Cabaret’ with Andrea bringing genuine feeling to the sad tale of Sally Bowles’s friend Elsie. Amy gets a well-deserved standing ovation after recounting her fight against cancer and how it ‘didn’t take away my dancing heart’ and from Carlos we learn that ‘China is my country, but UK is my home’. Andrea’s emotional singing of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Didn’t Know My Own Strength’ – the song Amy rang the bell to at the end of her chemotherapy – allows Amy (a vision in a floaty white skirt) and Carlos (in pink) a deeply moving rumba. Further highlights before the end of REBORN includes Carlos dancing a fiery paso doble with the three female dancers to ‘I’m a Survivor’ and Amy and the three men dance a slow, slinky, sensuous rumba to ‘It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World’. Perhaps sooner than you might now be wishing REBORN is over and we hear from Amy and Carlos how ‘This really is a dream come true’ and ‘Always dream big’.
Almost leaving the best till last Amy and Carlos – in a shower of confetti and suitable lighting – bring the curtain down on REBORN with a beautifully lyrical waltz to ‘Over the Rainbow’. A lovely ending to a heartwarming dance extravaganza that I recommend you see if you still can.
Jim Pritchard
For more about Amy & Carlos REBORN on tour click here.