Viewers were left in awe as the Strictly Come Dancing professionals took to the stage to perform their musicals week opening group number, which kicked off the show's quarter final.
Dancing a medley of routines choreographed by Strictly's own Oti Mabuse and Nikki Trow - as revealed by hosts Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly at the start - and joined by West End stars Trevor Dion Nicholas, Marisha Wallace and Ivano Turko, the professional dancers opened the show with a dance number to the tunes of iconic shows such as Rent, Six The Musical, Hamilton, Grease and more. And viewers were left describing this performance as "epic".
Avid watchers of Strictly were quick to flood social media platforms like Twitter with comments voicing their excitement at such an incredible opening to the show. It was even dubbed by one as their "favourite opening number ever" with many saying how "fabulous" it was.
Read more: Strictly Christmas special 2022 line-up in full as contestants announced
One user, @__d4nedison, wrote: "WHAT AN OPENER. #Strictly", another said: "What an epic musical medley! Yaaaaaassss!!! #Strictly".
@carina_price said: "What a fabulous opening to the #Strictly Musicals show. Loved that it showcased the singers as well as the professional dancers", as well as @KembleBethan who said: "BRILLIANT OPENER!! Love musicals week".
And the iopening number wasn't all viewers were wowwed by as it was followed by some impressive performances including from Molly Rainford and her partner Carlos Gu dancing the charleston to Chicago and Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystał dancing the Samba to The Lion King.
Kym Marsh returned to the live shows after missing last Saturday due to sicknessand danced the cha cha to Fame.
Molly and Carlos received their highest score yet after getting a whopping 38, with the judges saying that it was "perfection".
Shirley Ballas kicked off the comments by saying: "Well, what a way to open the show. I was not expecting that!"
Anton added: "As always with you, wonderful execution. Let me tell you, if you're going to pick a moment to up your game, this is the moment. And you've picked it."
Craig, too, said: "What a transformation. This is the first time I've actually seen you with full on power and energy." Motsi added how Molly was simply "shining".
Hamza's performance, too, thrilled the judges with Anton exclaiming: "Wow, I'm a bit overwhelmed by that. That was so good. I can't tell you... I loved that. You had such fluidity... your body was rippling all over the place. It was tremendous. I'm really really impressed, well done you." A comment Craig agreed with, calling his technique "out of this world".
Jointly topping the leaderboard after the quarter final dances were Will Mellor and Helen Skelton who both scored 39 out of 40 with their partners. Helen performed an incredible 'couple's choice' to Cabaret's Mein Herr, which many took to Twitter to call "spectacular", "amazing" and "a #Strictly moment". Read more about that here.
Strictly Come Dancing: The Results continues tomorrow on BBC One at 5.40pm.
Read Next:
- BBC Strictly's Will Mellor shares the sweet ritual he carries out before every dance in tribute to his dad
- BBC Strictly's Richie Anderson floors fans when he returns to show in a new role
- Strictly's Kym Marsh sends message to fans after hitting back at 'hurtful' comments
- BBC Strictly pro Nancy Xu 'gets angry' during rehearsals as Will Mellor tells her where she's going wrong
- Gavin & Stacey star says 'Christmas has come early' as he joins Strictly special line-up
