The Red Shoes
Alhambra Theatre, Bradford
★★★★☆

FEW films have captured ballet quite like Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (1948), its fever dream echoing through pop culture from Kate Bush to Wes Anderson.

Matthew Bourne’s dance-theatre adaptation for New Adventures shows why the story endures: its central tug-of-war between art and love still having relevance, even if the choice isn’t quite as stark for women these days. 

First staged in 2016, the production is a personal love letter to a life spent in theatre and dance. It presents a stylish collage of influences: classical ballet, Hollywood glamour, and music-hall camp.

At the centre is Victoria Page (Cordelia Braithwaite), a rising star discovered and shaped by legendary ballet impresario Boris Lermontov (Reece Causton). She’s then undone by her love for struggling composer Julian Craster (Dominic North), who offers her a different kind of future. 

Presented as a “ballet within a ballet” Lez Brotherston’s sumptuous set design is an extra character in its own right. Framed by a moving proscenium, it lets the action magically switch between backstage and onstage. The artifice is cleverly highlighted when at one point the audience’s applause is slowly drowned out by recorded cheering.

Each scene works as an individual set-piece while still feeding into the story’s fatal arc: a beach interlude in the style of French new wave; a moonlit pas de deux between Victoria and Julian in sailor-inspired costumes; a witty music hall scene that recalls Morecambe and Wise’s sand dance.

The most arresting sequence draws on silent film, with frenetic couples dancing in black as videos play across an Art Deco arch.

Bernard Herrmann’s music — arranged by Terry Davies — evocatively stitches together the varying emotional moods and stylistic set pieces. 

The second act feels slightly disconnected, with the ending too abrupt to carry the story’s full emotional weight. Overall, however, the production has enough “wow” moments to make the deal look tempting: to choose art, even knowing the price to be paid. Or, to slightly misquote Kate Bush, knowing that the red shoes are “gonna make you dance ‘till your legs fall off’.”

Running at Alhambra Theatre until April 25 and then playing at Newcastle Theatre Royal between April 28-May 9 2026.