by Zahid Fayyaz

This was certainly a rare treat in 2021: a packed-out West End show! Last year, the London Palladium was one of the venues to hold a pilot show when theatre was trying to work out the logistics of how to safely get audiences back. A year later, the stunning building hosts an extremely entertaining dance show in the West End after extensive touring in pre-Covid times.

Here Come the Boys is certainly not complex on the face of it. Four dancers and their partners, alongside various backing dancers, entertain the more-than-willing audience with routines set to various famous pop songs. Links between the routines include beatboxing and comedy skits in order to allow the performers a chance to change costumes. The whole things fizzes along at an entertainingly quick pace.

The dancers in this case, Aljaž Škorjanec, Pasha Kovalev, Graziano di Prima, and Robin Windsor, are wonderfully skillful in executing their choreography and routines, with some head-scratchingly supple moves involved. They work through several different dance styles in the course of the evening, with Ballroom and Rumba being the stand-outs, along with a steamy section for the adults in the second half. Equally billed is Nadiya Bychkova from Strictly Come Dancing, who certainly lives up to this billing in her fantastic performance. The crowd roars appreciatively at several points, and there are even a few whistles, indicating how much of a crowd-pleaser the show is.

As a critic, it’s hard to covey the joy and fun of the show in words. It’s not super-sophisticated, and it requires the mind-set of wanting to be entertained. However, the more you put into it, the more you get out. After the past year, you can certainly do a lot worse in terms of sheer entertainment in this fun, slick evening. The show has a limited run, so this comes with a strong recommendation to watch whilst it’s in town.

Here Come the Boys runs through 6 June.

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