Chicos Mambo in TUTU

Ten years and 700 performances after its creation, Chicos Mambo bring their humorous feel-good show, TUTU, to London for a short run at the Peacock…

Chicos Mambo in TUTU. © @FoteiniPhoto

Chicos Mambo
TUTU
★★★✰✰
London, Peacock Theatre
1 October 2024
@chicosmamboofficiel on Instagram
www.sadlerswells.com

Chicos Mambo has appeared a few times at the Edinburgh Fringe, and I can well see that after a few drinks in convivial company, you’d turn out after 80 minutes of humorous and surreal dance at least as inebriatedly happy as you rocked up. TUTU is a happy work, almost an exhausting work, as six male dancers unveil a torrent of bonkers ideas that go well beyond the tutu inspiration.

When you think of all male comedy troupes, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (The Trocks) immediately come to mind. And Chicos Mambo combines some of their slapstick and ‘dancers are only human’ gags with a more show biz repertoire and a dash of Pina Bausch’s wild eye for the absurd. And at its best, the combination is gorgeously witty, as when a group of particularly juvenile swans, dressed in feathered nappies, take on Stravinsky’s seriously bombastic Rite of Spring score. Much credit to designer Corinne Petitpierre for the parody costumes, which lift the whole production up a notch and make the Dance of the Cygnets impossible not to grin at. Elsewhere, I liked the Mambo take on “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing and some silly capering to “Wannabe” - the Spice Girls hit with the lyrics “Tell me what you want, what you really really want”.

The show runs for about 70 minutes (without interval) as a fast-paced series of unnamed dance skits. But you know all the tunes, and if something doesn’t connect, which happens a few times, then you don’t have to wait so long for a fresh bit of dance anarchy to emerge. In fact, the endless parade of gags can be quite taxing; there is little shading or space to breathe here. But one number featured a serious bit of ever-turning rope work - particularly noticeable for its deadpan artistry and a welcome exception. The dancers, all fine comedians and in terrific physical shape, are rarely off the stage, and when they are, it’s usually only for a quick costume change. They are hugely capable and do go on pointe etc., but there is not the touching reverence to classical steps that you get from the Trocks and which so impresses dance regulars.

TUTU was created ten years ago by artistic director Philippe Lafeuille, and as an extension of the closing curtain calls, he emerged to drive a bit of unexpected audience participation. It proved an uplifting and pleasant end to an ever-energetic, family-friendly show.