'Top Hat' review — this tip-tapping delight of a musical twinkles and soars

Read our review of Top Hat, starring Phillip Attmore and Amara Okereke, now in performances at the Southbank Centre to 17 January 2026.

Summary

• The stage musical based on the classic Hollywood movie comes to the Southbank Centre
• The story sees Broadway star Jerry Travers fall for the headstrong Dale Tremont
• Phillip Attmore and Amara Okereke succeed Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
• Kathleen Marshall’s production features spectacular tap numbers

The glory of a trip to see a stage version of the 1935 Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers film is, of course, the luxurious, big-chorus tap numbers. And here, in director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall’s production of Top Hat, which began at Chichester Festival Theatre in the summer, those scenes twinkle and soar and are everything you could possibly hope them to be.

However, much of the other action that plays out on the Southbank’s circular stage is curiously muted. It feels as if the actors are stuck performing behind a gauze screen, their emotional reasoning never quite reaching us, and the romance between star performer Jerry Travers and fashion model Dale Tremont seems to lack genuine chemistry.

It's strange because both performers have real acting chops. As Jerry, Phillip Attmore is a Broadway legend with countless awards under his belt, while Amara Okereke has cut her teeth in roles including Cosette in Les Misérables, for which she won a Stage Debut Award, and stunned as Eliza Doolittle in the Coliseum’s production of My Fair Lady in 2022. Neither is at the top of their game, although Okereke’s voice oozes her usual delightful, honeyed tone. Rather than sparking, their dances together feel dutifully executed.

Jerry falls hopelessly in love with the headstrong Dale after their paths cross when he tap dances too hard on the floor of the hotel room above hers. After some initial hostility, Dale is won over by him during a storm at the park as the pair sing the big, swooning number “Isn’t This a Lovely Day”.

Later, though, their budding romance is struck by a case of mistaken identity. Dale confuses Jerry for the producer of his London show, Horace, a constantly baffled James Clyde, who just so happens to be married to her friend Madge, a magnificently dry and quick-witted Sally Ann Triplett. Unlike the central couple, these two share a crackling comedy in their scenes. Of all the actors, Triplett shines for her pacy jabs and jibes, and their duet “Outside of That, I Love You” is a perfect burst of humorous zest.

Still, despite the second act being the stronger of the two, thanks to the amplified humour in Matthew White and Howard Jacques’ script, the show struggles to sustain engagement right until the finale. While Attmore's Jerry has a constant glint in his eye, he is too refined to make us see anything below surface-level charm.

But if you are here for the songs, then it is all sweet enough. Okereke’s solo “Better Luck Next Time” is performed with gliding, silken ease, while the band’s accompaniment of the opening number “Puttin’ on the Ritz” sends the dancers into a joyous flight of tip-tapping. This production may play it too safe, but in moments like these, it is easy to see why Top Hat was such a hit when it first graced stages back in 2011 and continues to charm.

Top Hat is at the Southbank Centre to 17 January 2026. Book Top Hat tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: Top Hat (Photos by Johan Persson)