REVIEW
Lord Of The Dance: Dangerous Games
Waterfront Hall
Belfast
TRADITIONAL Irish dancing at the cross roads is long gone – it’s more nightclub now, all sparkle and blondes who whip off their traditional costumes to revel black bras and handsome men whipping off their vests to reveal well-toned torsos. And the audience at Lord of the Dance Dangerous Games just loved it.
Make no mistake, Michael Flatley’s vision is still there and the precision routines are literally breathtaking. Flatly is clever: he updates his production on a regular basis and this time Dangerous Games takes us into the depths as good challenges evil against a backdrop which one minute is a forest glade with a unicorn grazing, then cliffs and raging seas and eventually into the burning fires of hell.
Twenty years ago Lord of the Dance burst on to the world stage and it has never gone away, and with a team like this it never will. Already 50 million people have seen it and by the end of this week you can add another 8,000 to that.
I sat beside a lady from Stamford in England who had returned home to Belfast to take her sister-in-law to see the show. It was her first time in the Waterfront and she was impressed; by the end of the evening she was flying high on adrenaline like the rest of us.
This is an infectious production. The little sprite who works so hard to bring peace and harmony is a contortionist in a body suit that looked like liquid gold; graceful Erin the goddess; the Black Lord and his army and the red-eyed robots were fearful. But it was the Lord himself who got the loudest cheers.
The audience was enraptured and when the final bow was taken we were on our feet; then the house went dark, but surely there was something more... Yes, a big surprise and three encores.
It’s a shame that this technically perfect production is only in Belfast for four nights because it certainly is something special.
:: Until Friday May 05. Tickets from waterfront.co.uk; box office tel 028 9033 4455; and Ticketmaster tel 0844 2774455.
