There are no new steps

"Vivir con miedo, es como vivir a medias"

I have been to see 'Strictly Ballroom', the stage adaptation of Baz Luhrmann's charming 1992 film of the same name, and very entertaining it was too. It is camper than a row of tents, but then I think we'd all be disappointed if it wasn't. Luhrmann (1) participated in the development of the musical and much of the dialogue is repeated word for word. It's about half an hour longer than the film; the difference being made up of more dancing and, it seemed to me, a greater prominence given to Fran's Spanish background. The show is stolen by Fernando Mira as Fran's father demonstrating how to dance the Paso Doble; now that is dancing.

Reviews in the media have been somewhat lukewarm, but the audience - including me - lapped it up and, given that this is self-evidently an out-of-town trial, I would expect this to be in the West End in due course. The new songs are never going to become classics, but those from the soundtrack to the film are sensibly retained. It's hokum, but it's great fun.

(1) Luhrmann is credited by the West Yorkshire Playhouse as the creator (sic) of this and Moulin Rouge, which seems fair enough, and also of Romeo and Juliet and The Great Gatsby, which doesn't.

'Cause many years from now there will be new sensations

I wanted to draw to your attention the comments section on a recent post, in which there is speculation as to what Edmund Blunden, the war poet, would have made of Noddy Holder, the shouty chap from the Black Country with the sideburns and the mirrored hat. Perhaps, if he did indeed watch the Christmas 1973 edition of Top of the Pops (and given how few channels there were in those days, I think we can assume that he would have) he may possibly have recalled these words of his own:

"And some are sparkling, laughing, singing,
Young, heroic, mild;
And some incurable, twisted,
Shrieking, dumb, defiled."

Or perhaps not. In any event, I hope you've all noted the spooky synchronicity that, among the very same pop highlights of the year, he would also have seen the Suzi Quatro performance that I posted yesterday.

And were I ever to direct a film of Blunden's life in a Baz Luhrmann musical stylie - which I hope we can agree is not the strangest idea ever to appear in this blog - then I would depict him sitting in the trenches singing this song, which sadly he never got to hear, having died before it was released:

And some are sparkling, laughing, singing,/Young, heroic, mild;/And some incurable, twisted,/Shrieking, dumb, defiled. - See more at: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/edmund-blunden#sthash.4UB6R1qV.dpuf

And some are sparkling, laughing, singing,/Young, heroic, mild;/And some incurable, twisted,/Shrieking, dumb, defiled. - See more at: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/edmund-blunden#sthash.4UB6R1qV.dpuf

And some are sparkling, laughing, singing,/Young, heroic, mild;/And some incurable, twisted,/Shrieking, dumb, defiled. - See more at: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/edmund-blunden#sthash.4UB6R1qV.dpuf