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Phil Hopkins
Group Travel Editor & Theatre Correspondent
@philhopkinsuk
12:26 PM 25th February 2015
arts

Scissorhands - A Cut Above

 
Matthew Bourne's productions are fresher than a Siberian wind blowing in from down town Novosibirsk.

I once commented that half the pleasure in watching Blood Brothers for a second time was the joy of watching those audience members witnessing it for the first time.

Last night there must have been as many people enjoying the ballet, Edward Scissorhands, as there were individuals watching the expressions on the face of this critic!

As Matthew Bourne's slice of 1950's Americana bounced across the Alhambra stage to the strains of Danny Elfman's amazing movie score, it felt as if I needed a second pair of eyes to take it all in.

Every stereotypical character from the Fonz to the football cheerleader was in there, and it was simply optical overload. A second visit is a must so that next time I can be in the enviable position of watching the Bourne ballet virgins, if there are any left, for this production has been doing the rounds since 2005, seven years on from its original gestation.

Considering Bourne came to dance so late in life - he was 22 - his creativity is exceptional. Was he ever the greatest principal in the way Nureyev or Baryshnikov were? Probably not. However, his ability to produce the truly unique is unquestionable and his thinking is one off which is why he has received so many industry nominations and achieved such international acclaim.

But would Edward Scissorhands the ballet ever have been possible were it not for Johnny Depp, the movie and Danny Elfman's musical score? Probably not. A little international pre publicity does help!

Elfman, who played Leeds Arena in October 2013, is a tour de force in his own right and, taken together, he and Bourne have created something that the New Adventures ballet company, and its creative mentors, can be truly proud of.

Not forgetting of course the wonderful set and costumers of Lez Brotherston. Surely he must have looked to Beetlejuice for inspiration!

When you are in the process of creating something amazing you never quite know it; you may hope it'll be great, however, it is only when time has passed and acclaim has followed that you really come to an understanding that, perhaps, you were involved in something amazing.

Bourne and his company can be proud of this emotional, endearing, dynamic, funny, ballet which assassinates ballet snobbery with all the precision of Edward Fox in The Day of the Jackal.

Accessible and powerful, this dance hybrid, which has musical and choreographic overtures from West Side Story, Planet of the Apes and even Sweet Charity, proves yet again that the Bourne Supremacy still reigns.


As for being part of something great.....I wonder if mum ever told the parish priest that son Phil once appeared as a dancing cardinal in the last Monty Python film, The Meaning of Life? This former altar boy's star must surely burn bright in Heaven?

Until Saturday (28th Feb 2015).