Review: Burlesque the Musical (Woking Theatre / UK Tour)

Review by Daz Gale

⭐️⭐️

Comparing a show to another production can often be a recipe for disaster, but what happens when you weren't a fan of the previous one? Many factors contribute to one person's enjoyment (or lack thereof) of a show, and no two experiences are guaranteed to have the same result. The night before attending Burlesque at Woking Theatre as part of its UK tour, I experienced this disparity at the West End transfer of Into The Woods. After being less than wowed in its initial outing at Bridge Theatre last year, I ate my words and fell in love with the production this time around as so many others had done last year. With that in mind, it made me even more excited to give Burlesque a second chance, following my less-than-favourable review of the West End production. With more tweaks made and a different creative team, would this latest version of a troubled musical have me asking it to show a little more or a little less? Welcome to Burlesque! Strap in, folks.

Burlesque began as a 2010 movie starring Cher and Christina Aguilera, the latter of whom serves as one of multiple producers on this stage adaptation and whose presence is felt throughout (more on that shortly). The musical premiered in Manchester in 2024 with a revised version opening in the West End last year. The story focuses on young singer Ali Rose who heads to New York in search of her mother. Taking a job as a waitress in a burlesque club, she tries to impress the club’s owner, Tess, in any way she can. And guess who Tess turns out to be?

Did I just commit the cardinal sin of spoiling a major plot point in a musical? For two reasons, the answer is no.

1 - This plot point is hammered in from the beginning with as much subtlety as a sledgehammer.

2 - “Plot” is not a word I would associate with Burlesque. After all, who needs a plot when you can shoehorn in a Christina Aguilera reference?

That last paragraph may be giving away where this review is headed… though the star rating at the top may have offered a clue as well. I went into Burlesque with all the best will in the world, hoping to fall in love with it as much as every gay man of a certain age fell in love with Cher saying “Wagon wheel watusi”. Surely they would have learned from the mistakes of the West End production and righted some very obvious wrongs? Well, they have certainly changed the show a lot since the West End run, and somehow they’ve made it even worse.

The biggest failing of this show sits with Steven Antin. It is perplexing, given that he is the same writer of the original movie, why his writing for the stage adaptation is as inadequate as it is. First, the need to change the dynamic between Tess and Ali is wholly unnecessary, with the mother-daughter relationship adding nothing to the show, and the unlikely sisterhood that formed between them in the movie landing much more successfully. But this production is even worse than that - the show has been written, rewritten and changed so many times in all of its various iterations, it no longer has any idea of what it wants to be. Burlesque lacks any sort of identity and doesn’t even have the courage of its convictions to say “This is what I am. Deal with it”, instead opting for a tone that wanders off so much it has no chance of ever finding its way back home. Elements from all of its various iterations and the scars from the revolving door of creatives who have joined the production and then left shortly after have led to a sort of Frankenstein’s monster with this particular iteration stitched together in a way that makes no sense whatsoever.

Antin, also listed as the creative director and producer on this production, very clearly needed a dramaturg or another writer to help him shape the story in a way that made sense. Instead, he fills Burlesque with terrible ideas and poorly executed sequences. Characters have little to no development, feeling like nothing more than caricatures. If you are looking for more information on Tess and Ali’s estranged relationship and how it came to be, you’ll find no answers here. Instead, there is an expectation for audiences to just go with it and not ask questions. This is one of the biggest issues I have with Burlesque - it insults the audience’s intelligence and takes them for fools, thinking they will put up with it just because. Rather than flesh out the backstories and characters of Ali and Tess, Antin has instead decided to give a much bigger role to Tess’ ex-husband Vince, for reasons that are only known to Steven Antin himself. His beefed-up role sees him singing a contender for the worst musical number in the show, ‘Ammo’, inexplicably getting a reprise later on, despite featuring a contender for the worst lyric ever to be seen on stage, “Blame Uncle Sammo, I’ve got the ammo”.

This iteration also borrows heavily from other musicals, notably Moulin Rouge in a not-so-subtle way. Vince is a carbon copy of the Duke from that show, so much so that I almost expected him to burst into a rendition of ‘So Fresh, So Clean’ at one stage. And then there’s the heavy-handed Christina Aguilera references. From “I fight dirty” cramming in two of her biggest hits in one line (technically one and a half) to the references to her and Cher in another of the show’s worst musical numbers, ‘Big’, that should have been enough. However, Steven Antin does not know the meaning of the word subtlety. Where other shows may have had a poster or photo of Christina as a knowing wink, Antin again underestimates the audience’s intelligence by having Aguilera’s song ‘Genie In A Bottle’ as Ali’s ringtone. Honestly, the kind of puerile choice that should never have made it out of the rehearsal room, but here it is in all its glory, making me cringe more every time it goes off (Ali gets a lot of phone calls).

Then there is the small matter of the music. Adding to the Frankenstein’s monster feel, this production crams together numbers from the movie and the multiple versions of the musical even from those who no longer wish to be associated with the show. Diane Warren, Sia, Todrick Hall and Jess Folley have all contributed numbers to mixed results. The aforementioned ‘Big’ is one of the worst offenders, while I’m surprised the frankly awful ‘What Are Clothes’ made it to the tour from the West End run. A particularly wooden Jack gets a boyband moment for some unknown reason on ‘Natalie’, a number so pointless it can’t even be described as filler. Some of the new numbers are the musical equivalent of “That could have been an email” and don’t hold a candle to the numbers from the movie, with ‘Bound To You’ the biggest highlight of the night. I also suspected that not every musical number was live, with one number early in Act Two looking suspiciously as if it could have been mimed, but I could be completely wrong on that one. If that is the case, though, it is an insult to audience members paying for a live show.

This production is centred around the casting of Faye Brookes as Tess, and while there is no denying her talent, something just didn't align in her characterisation. I admit she serves good face in the role, has a great knack for movement, and can more than hold a tune. Unfortunately, when she is thrust into the spotlight, there is discomfort in her inability to command the stage. Her performance lacks conviction and is free of any type of emotion or even humanity at times. This is most noticeable at Tess’ big, climactic number ‘You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me’, written by Diane Warren and originally performed by Cher in the movie. Those are some big shoes to fill, and Brookes doesn't so much struggle as she does fail, delivering a disappointingly weak and powerless number that lacks any sort of gravitas and is performed with less substance than some of the arguably filler numbers.

At the performance I attended, the lead role of Ali was played by understudy Macy Dermody Blythe, who may have been the best thing about this production. Through fantastic vocals and a great characterisation, she frequently prevented the production from derailing into a completely unsalvageable disaster. Her soaring vocals were breathtaking to witness, initially impressing on two of the better new musical numbers, ‘I Got It All From You’ and ‘Don’t Make Me Sing’, before wowing on the strongest sequence in this production, standout number ‘Bound To You’.

Elsewhere, Ryan Carter is an undoubted standout as Sean in a role that is more toned down than the previous iterations but still not without a smattering of exaggerated moments, particularly when Carter reappears as Ali's friend Loretta (no longer Miss Loretta, and for that I am thankful). Carter effortlessly commands the stage with his charismatic nature, bringing a sense of fun to the show. Sadly, that is where my compliments of performances end. Other performances were awkward, stilted, and wooden, with many a line merely read out as opposed to delivered with feeling. Given how many questionable performances there were in this production, the likelihood is this is not the fault of the cast whatsoever, and the fault lies with the director instead and the baffling way they have been told to perform the show.

Speaking of the direction, a director is certainly credited, but what impact Racky Plews had is questionable given how directionless this production feels. This again may be a reflection of the creative director and limitations placed on whoever this week's creative team may be, but I can’t lie and say it felt like the direction worked this time around, as that couldn’t be further from the truth. A wandering tone and a flawed execution give the sense that no care was taken when considering how best to direct this production. It is a shame as Aaron Renfree's choreography shows no shortage of promise, but is wasted through poor direction and sporadically used instead.

One positive aspect the West End production had going for it was a decent design. Scaling back for a tour is to be expected, but the excessive scaling back here results in a sparse and pretty poor set. An over-reliance on video design would be one thing if it gave any sense of opulence; instead, it cheapens the entire thing, feeling incredibly tacky throughout. Rather than actually invest in a curtain for the stage, an effect of a curtain dropping is used on video throughout in an effect so ineffective it could have been created by a small child. Lyrics are blasted up on screens throughout, somehow mistaking a musical for karaoke, while the overall backgrounds just aren’t good enough. Many elements of an underdeveloped and underwhelming musical can be forgiven if the whole thing at least looks good, so this was a missed opportunity to cover up the cracks with a bit of glamour (surely a bit of glamour wouldn’t go amiss in a show called Burlesque?). Instead, its inadequacies heighten the shortcomings of the overall production, whose one consistency is in how poor it is.

This latest version of Burlesque is a frustrating watch, as it is so clear to see how this could be shaped into a much better musical. However, when every rewrite is by the same person, with each incredibly worse than the last, there is no saving this show. Bring in a fresh pair of eyes, perhaps one that understands how musical theatre works, and doesn’t just say “Let’s just copy Moulin Rouge,” and there may be hope, though with each increasingly inferior iteration, that hope is diminishing rapidly. The only thing that prevents this production from being completely irredeemable is a handful of solid performances from talented cast members, sparing moments of strong choreography and some stunning musical numbers buried amongst the dirge it is forced to sit alongside.

I went into this production of Burlesque optimistic that this time around it would be enjoyable enough to avoid the two-star curse, and it very nearly did avoid it… but not in the direction it would have hoped. In many ways, this production is even more of a disjointed mess than the one that graced the West End stage with a case of “too many cooks” leading to a creative nightmare. The only thing I can assume is that the trouble with Burlesque comes from the very top, and if one person refuses to take on feedback, ideas, and collaborate, instead resigning themselves to a stubborn vision that does not work, this show is never going to thrive as it deserves to in another pair of hands.

Given the deteriorating results each time Burlesque returns, it might be time to accept this will never be the big hit that had been hoped for. As Tess attempts to sing (depending on which performance you attend - who knows when they’ll cut and replace it again?), ‘You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Me’. It might be best if this was the last we see of Burlesque - audiences deserve better, and so do the people working on the show who are having their talents wasted. At one point in the show, a character advises that “Tess hates musicals”, and if Burlesque is the only one she’s ever seen, that is perfectly understandable.

Burlesque continues its tour of the UK until 15th May 2027. Dates and tickets at https://www.burlesqueonstage.com/

Photos by Rosie Moore