Matthew Bourne’s “steamy, sweaty, lust-drenched thriller” of a dance show is perfect for this long, hot summer, said Marianka Swain in The Telegraph.
Inspired by Georges Bizet’s opera “Carmen” and with the “pulp-noir aesthetic” of films like “The Postman Always Rings Twice”, this “devilishly entertaining” dance production was first staged in 2000 and is now back on tour.
In the tiny, fictional Midwestern town of Harmony, we meet the “beautiful young” Lana, who is unhappily married to “boorish” garage owner Dino. When “hunky stranger” Luca “swaggers into town”, he manages to seduce both Lana and the “sensitive” Angelo, who works at Dino’s garage. Things soon unfurl into a “combustible blend of desire, revenge, jealousy and murder”: it’s a “blistering summer scorcher of a show”.
More than 25 years have passed since “The Car Man” made its debut, but it still feels “fresh”, said Rachel Agyekum on WhatsOnStage. Harrison Dowzell is “magnetic” as Luca, moving with a confidence that makes it “impossible to look away”. His chemistry with Lana (Cordelia Braithwaite) and fellow mechanic Angelo (Leonardo McCorkindale) is “undeniable”.
Bourne’s “witty, raunchy choreography” has echoes of “West Side Story” shot through with the “dramatic tension of pure theatre”, said Debra Craine in The Times. Terry Davies’ “pumped score” is played live by the New Adventures orchestra and the “iconic melodies” feel as if they were “custom built for dance”. But we could “do without” the cabaret act at the beginning of the second half.
Still, it’s a “thrillingly charged” show, said Siobhan Murphy on The Stage. Lez Brotherston’s “ingenious” set design moves seamlessly from a “scuzzy garage” to a “forbidding prison”, and the cast tackle their “robust dance roles with aplomb”. Bourne throws in some “suitably melodramatic Shakespearean touches” and a fair bit of “wry humour” as the production flies towards its “inevitable tragic ending”. This is the choreographer “firing on all cylinders”.
Sadler’s Wells until 29 August, then touring the UK until 21 November