Hellooo! On 30th June I took a trip up the road to Grimsby Auditorium to see Strictly Presents: Keeeep Dancing! The show was originally titled Strictly Presents, The Power of Dance but was later rebranded with the new title. The ticket was £36 and I was sat in seat CM15 in the Circle, which had a great view of the show. As always, I also purchased a programme to add to my collection and I really like the glossy tour brochure for this show! I have seen a few dance-themed shows at Grimsby Auditorium, including Burn The Floor and Johannes Radebe’s Freedom tour, among others and I was excited to see how this show would compare.
The show featured a generous selection of ballroom and latin routines, taking the audience through the process of being invited to join the Strictly family and appear on the show, all the way through to the grand final with everything in between, such as Halloween night and the iconic Blackpool shows. The music comprised of live performances of songs including The Greatest Show, Thriller, My Girl and Your Song, mixed with recorded songs that were played, rather than sung.
The cast consisted of Strictly Come Dancing professional dancers, along with celebrity alumni from the show. Strictly Come Dancing’s Neil Jones, Cameron Lombard, Jowita Przystal and Nancy Xu joined previous contestants Maisie Smith and Rhys Stephenson however, it was difficult to tell the professionals and the celebrities apart! The Wanted’s Max George was originally listed to be part of the tour to provide musical performances but it was stated that he would be unable to attend the Grimsby Auditorium show however, a couple of days before the show it was announced that he would be able to perform at the Grimsby show, which was VERY exciting as I am a huge The Wanted fan!
I loved the show, particularly The Greatest Show and I enjoyed Max and Maisie’s duet of Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. I liked how the different dance styles flowed into each other to tell the story of the Strictly experience and the transitions between routines. The set was filled with lights and resembled a discoball and of course, the set was complete with a sparkling glitterball hanging from above.
Max’s bandmate Nathan Sykes was in the audience and it was amazing to have a chat with him on the way out and reminisce about when The Wanted last performed at Grimsby Auditorium in 2010, which I was also in the audience for! We were also lucky enough to meet some of the cast at stage door who were all lovely, which was the perfect end to the night!
Overall, I loved the show and it was a fun night filled with dancing, lots of laughs and plenty of musical performances from Max George, which I was very excited to see! I enjoyed the story of the show and how it told the Strictly experience in 2 (ish) hours! I loved the whole cast and really liked the set and lighting and I would highly recommend seeing the show if you’re a Strictly fan as you definitely won’t be disappointed!
Thanks for reading!
Sophie
