Top Hat

Milton Keynes Theatre

23rd September 2025

Having recently enjoyed a summer run at Chichester’s Festival Theatre, stage musical ‘Top Hat’ has polished its dancing shoes and taken to the road, embarking on a UK tour running through to April 2026. The show plays this week at Milton Keynes Theatre, the venue which saw the premiere of the previous UK tour back in 2011, led by Tom Chambers fresh on the heels of his Strictly win. This time around it’s Phillip Attmore donning the titular ‘Top Hat’ and tails, joined by Amara Okereke and Sally Ann Triplett, in a shimmering sequinned spectacle that harks back to the golden age of Hollywood.

Following the plot of the 1935 film, ‘Top Hat’ sees American dancer Jerry Travers (Attmore) preparing to star in a new show from producer Horace Hardwick (James Hume). When Travers’ loud tap-dancing in his hotel room disturbs the slumber of Dale Tremont (Amara Okereke), the two meet and Jerry falls for Dale instantly. When Dale mistakes Jerry for Horace, who happens to be married to her friend Madge (Sally Ann Triplett), the case of mistaken identity leads to a gentle romantic farce with an Italian fashion designer and a meddling English valet thrown in for good measure.

‘Top Hat’s legacy is now 90 years old, and what defies that fine vintage is Irving Berlin’s music, which still sounds glorious and has audience heads swaying and bobbing along with every note. Classics such as “Let’s Face The Music And Dance”, “Isn’t It A Lovely Day To Be Caught In The Rain” and “Cheek To Cheek” still sound wonderfully romantic, and the score boosts the song count to fourteen from the film’s six, giving us even more Berlin for our buck. It does however feel a bit “patchwork”, perhaps inevitable with in its adaptation, and doesn’t gel as a cohesive whole. It’s also weighed down by a plodding book (Matthew White and Howard Jacques) that takes a long time to warm up and then even longer to tell its story. A lengthy second act stretches audience attention to near-breaking point, and there just isn’t enough engaging narrative in the farcical plot to maintain the momentum.

The good news though is that whenever things threaten to lag a little too much, there’s an enjoyable song just around the corner, delivered with class and style with Kathleen Marshall’s dynamic choreography. When ‘Top Hat’s toes tap, everything else can be forgiven. The show also looks great, with high production values (not something every tour can claim these days), some swanky set design from Peter McKintosh making clever use of a central resolve to represent multiple locations, along with some sumptuous and lavish costumes (again by McKintosh and Yvonne Milnes).

Phillip Attmore and Amara Okereke make likeable leads, though their chemistry lacks that certain something to really make the piece sparkle. Both are in fine voice and deliver their songs well, Okereke in particular, and handle Marshall’s choreography competently. They don’t quite capture the lightweighted effortlessness of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the memorable “Cheek To Cheek” routine, but few could, and it’s still a lovely moment. Strong comic support comes from James Clyde as the dry valet Bates, and Alex Gibson-Giorgio as the animated Alberto Beddini, and James Hume gets every drop of Britishness out of his fumbling Horace. But it’s the brilliant Sally Ann Triplett as Madge Hardwick who really steals the show here, a mighty character actor with enviable comic timing, she really is one of theatreland’s best.

‘Top Hat’ is one of the great ‘dance musicals’, and will always be loved far more for its choreography and music than its frankly-daft plot. It suffers when compared to the similarly-presented ‘42nd Street’, but fans of that show will still find a lot to like here. It may be a modern creation but it represents those days gone by of ‘classic Broadway and Hollywood’, an evening of nostalgia covered in enough sequins and feathers and bright lights to blind you from its shortcomings. Forget the plot, just enjoy the music, and take ‘Top Hat’ as a warm-hearted love letter to the art of dance.

‘Top Hat’ runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 27th September before continuing on its UK tour through to April 2026.

Details at:

https://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre

Performance runtime – 2 hours 40 minutes including interval.