It's time to pull on your fluorescent leg warmers and get your hair permed because Flashdance - The Musical is at Milton Keynes Theatre!
The show is like an eighties tribute act to the iconic movie, faithfully recreating the dance routines and most memorable visuals from the film, writes Chris Gregg.
If you've never owned a VHS copy of Flashdance, the plot follows Alex Owens (Strictly winner Joanne Clifton) who is a welder by day and dances in bars at night but dreams of becoming a professional dancer by getting into Shipley Dance Academy.
That's Shipley, not Strictly. She gets together with her boss, Nick Hurley (Ben Adams from boy band A1), who encourages her to follow her dreams and dances around in her pants a lot as she prepares for her audition, at one point getting covered in water as she reclines uncomfortably on a chair.
It may feel like the plot has been stretched thinly to fill two acts and some of the original songs that have been added aren't quite as memorable as the hits from the famous soundtrack but this show has an enormous energy and is hugely entertaining.
When it comes to dancing, Joanne Clifton certainly has form - as World & European Champion ballroom dancer, and one of a very few professional dancers to have won the Strictly glitter ball (with Ore Oduba last year) and the Christmas Special (in 2015 with Harry Judd) so she was perfectly cast in the lead role.
She performs the dances from the movie so effortlessly, they are almost an anticlimax when she has already shown what she is capable of. Impressively, as well as her dancing talents she is also an outstanding singer and actor.
Alongside Joanne is Ben Adams in the other lead role. While he somehow avoids almost all dancing in this show, his voice and stage presence are confident and impressive. He is still making music since leaving A1, writing and producing with the likes of Robin Thicke, Craig David and JLS.
The additional cast includes Colin Kiyani, Rikki Chamberlain, Garry Lee Netley, Carol Ball, Sia Dauda, Hollie Ann Lowe, Simeon Beckett, Rhodri Watkins, Demmileigh Foster, Emily Kenwright, Ameila Rose Fielding, Alex Christian, Matt Concannon, Michael Wade-Peters and Agnes Pure.
Expect to hear all the hits from the movie - Maniac, Manhunt, Gloria, I Love Rock & Roll and the award-winning title track Flashdance - What a Feeling, all performed with a live band (who are hidden behind the set until the encore).
There is a very talented supporting cast, some amazing choreography, lighting and staging although press night was marred by some technical issues with microphone failures and some slow lighting changes.
There were also some uncomfortably bright strobe lights shone into the eyes of the audience towards the end of the first act which caused several audience members to complain as they left the theatre for the interval.
Overall, though, this is a great show which will not disappoint. It delivers everything you would expect in terms of dazzling dance routines, big songs and lots of fun.
Flashdance is at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday (July 21).
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