REVIEW: The Red Shoes at Newcastle Theatre Royal

The Red Shoes

Newcastle Theatre Royal 

Until Saturday 9 May 2026

Lavish, imaginative and completely captivating, Sir Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes is a loving tribute to its movie source and delivers beauty, comedy and high emotion, brilliantly interpreting Bernard Herrman’s soaring music.

Originally staged ten years ago, this production was touring in 2020, when the pandemic closed all the theatres. It is a cause for celebration that Bourne’s dazzling New Adventures company are once more bringing this exquisite dance drama to regional audiences.

Powell and Pressburger’s 1948 film was unlike anything that went before it. A Technicolor extravaganza in glamorous locations, it told the story of Victoria Page, a young dancer torn between her love for an aspiring composer and her passion for dance. Her signature role mirrors her real-life dilemma in portraying a girl so captivated by her red shoes that she is forced, literally, to dance herself to death.

The dance is personified here by Andy Monaghan’s imposing and obsessive impresario, Boris Lermontov, as well as Liam Mower’s stern, demanding ballet master, Grisha Lubov. Both deliver flawless dancing, coupled with nuanced and believable characterisation. Together, they deliver one message: dance demands your complete dedication, to the exclusion of all other passions.

Last seen here in her brittle and affecting portrayal of Miss Roach in The Midnight Bell, Cordelia Braithwaite wrings every nuance and hint of emotion from her role as Page. An exceptional dancer at the peak of her powers, the beauty of her lines and her flawless technique mean that she effortlessly embodies Herrman’s richly emotional music.

At this performance, Braithwaite was skilfully partnered by Jarrod McWilliams, the cover for composer Julian Craster, who danced out of his skin to bring out all the contrasting emotions of this idealistic character. In the titular ballet within the ballet, Jackson Fisch brought the same quality of youthful freshness and flawless technique to the role of her lover.

Typically for Bourne, the production has enjoyable elements of comedy and simple joy to temper the drama. Blissful seaside frolics, a boozy cast party and a hilarious sand-dancing sequence were particularly memorable. But it is the passion and the rapturous beauty of the more dramatic dance sequences that will stay in the memory most powerfully.

Lez Brotherston’s inspired scenery, centred by a gilt proscenium arch that rotates to change the aspect from stage to audience is a wonder, as are his glorious costumes. The sense of the period is all-pervading, and the perfectly judged extravagance of the images portrayed chimes perfectly with Terry Davies’ inspired orchestrations. Sadly, there was no live orchestra and the dancers performed to a recorded track, but such are the constraints of touring dance in 2026.

One would think that Matthew Bourne’s rich imagination and choreographic versatility would be a splendid fit with Powell and Pressburger’s unique and colourful vision and so it proves. This multiply awarded production is everything one could hope for it to be and more. Simply wonderful!

Review: Jonathan Cash

Photos: Johan Persson

Tickets:

Tickets are available online from https://www.theatreroyal.co.uk/whats-on/matthew-bournes-the-red-shoes/ and the Theatre Royal box office.