Dancing Queen @ Darlington Civic

Karaoke, Talent TV, Jive Bunny and Cruise Ships have a lot to answer for

Billed as a spectacular song & dance extravaganza, Dancing Queen struggles to define itself or even agree on what type of show it is.  Centred, as the title suggests, around the songs of Abba, there are also forays into 70’s disco, Soul and Mowtown, which are delivered in a “Stars on 45” style megamix with backing dance tracks and vocoder assisted vocals.  I could easily expect to see this show (in maybe a 20 minute act) on board a cruise ship with a captive audience who have possibly spent the day on the all inclusive cocktails and were quite happy to watch this over-engineered karaoke show.

The choreography was constantly trying to be too clever, too precise and too pretentious.  There was little flow and, with over 20 people on stage, many of the dancers seemed to be struggling to keep up with the over-worked routines without standing on their cast mates.  Too many songs were backed by the full ensemble trying to deliver the entire repertoire of the choreographer’s creativity as though it was a dance exam with the brief “Demonstrate every clichéd dance move you have seen in the past 10 years”.

The main 4 members of the cast, who were taking the lead as the Abba-esque singers, were so very different that it was hard to accept they were portraying one of the tightest pop groups in music history.  Jennifer Harding spent most of the time over-smiling and forcing enthusiasm onto the audience that suggested “You will enjoy this, you will have a good time” while trying to find her pitch (or wait until the backing vocals were loud enough to help cover her up).  Jessica Parker, who has a great voice, missed sultry and went straight for sullen.  Aston Dobson and Simon Bulley kept looking like they knew this wasn’t good but hey, it’s a show, we’re on stage and we’re getting paid.  To be honest, the lads did have character and tried hard to move away from the “Walk slowly to the front of the stage, sing song and then dramatically walk back again”  but there was just no chemistry between the 4 of them.  Bizarrely, most of the Abba songs were performed with only 3 of the main four on stage, the girls taking it in turns to use the opportunity for a costume change - strange as I certainly remember all of Abba's hits having the 4 of them present.

The casting manager must have thought it was time to redress the time honoured tradition of having strong, tall male dancers and slight & petite female dancers.  Instead, there was only 1 guy who was taller than any of the girls and regularly the pairings gave the rest of the guys a real challenge to catch and lift girls who were at least 5 inches taller (and a few pounds heavier) than themselves.

The show itself would have benefited from having some dialogue in between the songs, something that would have given the main cast an avenue to relate to the audience and to break up the non-stop party anthem mega-mix approach.  The only time that the show really gave something of note was when it stopped trying to be so darn serious and just had a bit of fun – the start of Act 2 was much better than the whole of Act 1 – there was 70’s Rock ‘n’ Roll with a quite stunning backing singer (who turned out to be one of the lad dancers in a frock) and the reworking of Village People’s YMCA & In the Navy.  The cast really looked like they were finally having fun, a bit of freedom from the rigid routines of Act 1 and the singers sounded like they had found their true level.  But it didn’t last, and all too soon we were returned to the over-produced style and delivery we were forced to sit through in Act 1.

 This may sound like I am beating up on the cast & crew, and maybe there were a few who were as guilty as the choreographer & director for being too “look at me”, but for the most part, the ensemble suggested they were capable of much more fluidity, more expression and more enjoyment – if only they had been allowed to.

In reality Dancing Queen is the stage show production of "Jive Bunny does Abba and the 70’s" - perfect for kids discos, holiday camps and cruise ships .