“Starstruck” at Theatre Royal, Glasgow
Mark Brown on Clydeside
★★★★☆
21 April 2026
This two-act ballet – inspired by and built around Gene Kelly’s short “jazz-ballet” Pas de Dieux – has its genesis in a smaller, one-act piece staged by Scottish Ballet back in 2021. Then as now the premiere was attended by the show’s artistic collaborator Patricia Ward Kelly (who is the widow and biographer of the famous American dancer, actor, director and choreographer).
Photo credit: Andy Ross.
Starstruck – which boasts a scenario and additional choreography by Scottish Ballet’s artistic director Christopher Hampson – incorporates Gene Kelly’s original choreography. Created for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1960, and danced to music by George Gershwin, Pas de Dieux engineered an acclaimed collision between Ancient Greek mythology (the turbulent, celestial love affair between Zeus and Aphrodite) and the aesthetics of jazz.
Hampson has extended that – with considerable creativity and intelligence – into a meta-choreography about the making of a ballet about the aforementioned Greek gods. The piece opens – courtesy of typically evocative design by Lez Brotherston (who also contributed to the scenario) – in what would certainly pass for a New York City rehearsal room circa 1960.
There, a gaggle of ultra-competitive, desperately ambitious ballerinas are visibly outraged to be sidelined at the auditions by the character known only as The Star Ballerina (let’s call her TSB). Danced on opening night with all of the necessary hyper-confidence and seemingly effortless sexuality by the superb Cuban dancer Marlen Fuerte Castro, TSB quickly captures both the role and the heart (or, at least, the libido) of The Choreographer (who was portrayed marvellously on first night by Brazilian dancer Yuri Marques).
The ballet that ensues takes us through the early, passionate flourishing of the relationship between the chief protagonists (who later play Aphrodite and Zeus), to a dream sequence of Hollywood glitz to the staging of the Attic-themed jazz ballet in Paris. Gershwin’s music is juxtaposed with that of Chopin and Ravel, adding – as does Hampson’s choreography – an excellent, distinctive, entirely plausible textural layer.
The central duo – with their passionate pas de deux and their hilariously unsubtle games of jealousy – are the beating heart of the piece. Their duets turn on a dime between dance that is highly demanding (and beautifully executed) and moments of unexpected humour.
That lightness is carried into the high-octane ensemble dances which are unembarrassed to include jazz hands. Indeed, this bold choreography doesn’t shy away from placing centre stage young lovers who are, for the most part, pretty obnoxious.
Hampson’s twenty-first- century ballet – wrapped, as it is, around Kelly’s mid-twentieth-century choreography – is a delightfully varied, energetic, often funny dance work. Danced with universal excellence by Scottish Ballet’s principals and ensemble, with the contrasting score performed splendidly by the orchestra under the baton of Martin Yates, this enhanced Starstruck is a jazz-infused success.
