Irving Berlin’s Top Hat – The Musical, A Chichester Festival Theatre Production at Birmingham Hippodrome | 03 March 2026 untul 08 March 2026, then on tour ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by David Gray & Paul Gray

Photo credit: Johan Perrson

Irving Berlin’s Top Hat – The Musical

A Chichester Festival Theatre Production at Birmingham Hippodrome | 03 March 2026 untul 08 March 2026, then on tour

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by David Gray & Paul Gray

“A tap-happy joy of a show.”

This is a show that starts as it means to go on, with a lavish all-singing all-dancing production number: straight in; no messing about. The wonderful songs of Irving Berlin are what we are here for, as well as some spectacular dancing - and no choreographic opportunity goes undanced.

And at first glance, the plot - a case of mistaken identity stretched beyond breaking point - does seem gossamer light. The plot is little more than an excuse for the characters to repeatedly break into song. But this perception misses the cleverness of the story telling: how it plays with layers of nostalgia; nostalgia for the era of the show; nostalgia for a bygone London that never existed; for a myth of Italian glamour.

It also misses the story’s sophisticated moral ambivalence. Marriage is treated with the utmost frivolousness: a joke, a transaction, something to be bought and sold and, when inconvenient, thrown away. One wonders whether the frisson of scandal was one of the selling points of the film version of this show, which came out in the morally straight jacketed 1930s. And yet, at the end, the happy, warm ending is all about love and marriage.

Life in Irving Berlin’s musical world is complex. Beneath its glittering surface of sharp suits and ostrich feathers it can be emotionally fraught.

It is a slick show, fast paced and well put together. The comic characters in the cast - ably headed by James Humes’ buffoonish but loveable Horace Hardwick - keep things tripping along. The comedy is always polished, brilliantly timed and never overplayed. James Clyde, as the eccentric manservant, Bates, uses flawless dead-pan delivery to keep a number of running-gags up in the air for the whole show. Also, the Italian character of Alberto Beddini (hilariously played Alex Gibson-Giorgio) has a foreign accent to die for!

Romantic leads, Phillip Attmore and Amara Okereke step out from under the shadow of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to make these roles very much their own. Attmore dances with a loose-limbed elegance and taps with fierce virtuosity. It’s a shame his voice is a little underpowered, but he gets by as a convincing ‘crooner’. Okereke is much more vocally assured. She transitions to head voice beautifully, with a glorious upper register. Her vocal style is very much in keeping with performance practices of the era. Taken together, the couple have great chemistry; and their romantic dance numbers really sweep the stage.

The ensemble is musically very impressive, producing a lush, glossy, Hollywood sound. And the dancing is tight and exciting. Basically, this is a copper-bottomed surefire hit of a show that delivers on all counts.

Cast

Jerry Travers – Phillip Attmore

Dale Tremont – Amara Okereke

Horace Hardwick – James Hume

Madge Hardwick – Emma Williams

Bates – James Clyde

Alberto Beddini – Alex Gibson-Giorgio

Creatives

Authors – Matthew White & Howard Jacques

Director & Choreographer – Kathleen Marshall

Sets – Peter McKintosh

Costumes – Yvonne Milnes & Peter McKintosh

Lighting – Tim Mitchell

Sound – Paul Groothius

Conductor – Luke Holman