The Red Shoes – Bradford Alhambra

Powell and Pressburger’s classic movie The Red Shoes was about a ballerina forced to choose between love and art, so it seemed natural Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures company would adapt it for the stage.

The movie was itself a new take on the rather gruesome Hans Christian Andersen fairytale where a haughty young girl is punished by a pair of red ballet shoes with a life of their own that force her to dance endlessly even when her feet are chopped off.

Thankfully Bourne’s places his less bloody version in the late 1940s where rising star Victoria Page catches the eye of demanding ballet impresario Boris Lermontov. She joins his company becoming his star creation wearing the fabled red shoes before falling in love with composer Julian Craster, but the demanding Lermontov forces Page to choose between love and dance with tragic consequences.

In the movie Bourne noted that only about 20% of the action was dance, but his witty and accessible choreography – including seeing dancers warming up at the barre and bright excursions to the French Riviera – fills those gaps combining pin sharp dancing from the whole company with a clear narrative. Bourne has also ditched the movie score instead using Terry Davies’ beautiful orchestration of music by Oscar winning composer Bernard Herrmann, including excerpts from his work on Citizen Kane, The Ghost and Mrs Muir? and Fahrenheit 451.

The uniformly excellent company really excel in the surreal ballet within a ballet as they recreate the gruesome fairytale version on Lez Brotherson’s gorgeous modernist set, and there are elements of Gene Kelly’s pioneering choreography in this section, and even a touch of Fosse.

Sometimes a set can be an extra character and Brotherson uses the simple, but really effective, device of a massive rotating proscenium arch to shift the action from onstage to behind the scenes aided by Paule Constable’s sweeping lighting. The scene in a seedy British music hall where Page is reduced to performing is both hilarious and sad, complete with a sand dance and a naughty ventriloquist’s dummy.

Despite Bourne’s always emotionally charged choreography there’s a bit more acting required in this production, and New Adventures stalwart Cordelia Braithwaite commands the stage as the doomed Page. Her work en pointe is exemplary, and her duets with another company veteran Dominic North as her lover Craster are full of power and passion. Reece Causton as Lermontov does well with the little choreography he has but is believable as the driven impresario.

Nearly two thirds of this company have come through New Adventures’ development programme, so they are familiar with Bourne’s style, and none more so than in the witty Ballon de Plage as they cavort in tight swimsuits with beach balls that brings to mind Busby Berkeley.

There’s plenty for ballet purists to enjoy in this sumptuous and absorbing version of a classic tale of the obsessive nature of art, which may be truer for dancers who endure physical agonies to become the best. For the rest of us this is a visual treat full of Bourne’s always clear choreography that always aims to bring you into the magic of ballet.

The Red Shoes is at Bradford Alhambra until Saturday 25th April. To book 01274 432000 or www.bradford-theatres.co.uk

Reviewer: Paul Clarke

Reviewed: 21st April 2026

North West End UK Rating: