First performed in 1936, On Your Toes has only been revived twice since. Even on paper you can see why. This is a Rodgers and Hart musical about dance, a tale about the clash between the starchy Russian ballet tradition and the freedoms of American jazz dance. And that's the problem on stage. Despite some winning performances, catchy songs and thrilling dance, there's little for the audience to make an emotional connection with. Structured as a play within a play, we follow the imagined fortunes of young vaudeville star Phil Dolan after he gives up the stage to be a music professor.
It's a pity, because there are plenty of likable things about Paul Kerryson's production. He has fun with the cold war between the two traditions, vamping up the self-indulgent antics of the Russian ballerina, Vera Baronova (Sarah Wildor) in contrast to the homespun charm of Dolan (Adam Cooper). In a central dance sequence, in which the Americans have to persuade a Russian impresario that jazz ballet is the way forward, propaganda posters of Fred Astaire (who turned down a role in On Your Toes) and Lenin playfully drop down over the dancing.
Key performances are spirited, especially Kathryn Evans as Peggy Porterfield, whose feisty, Elvis-tinged rendition of You Took Advantage of Me is one of the evening's highlights, and who gets some of the play's finest lines. "Can a good man love two women at the same time?" a bewildered Dolan asks her. "Only if he's very good," she replies.
At their best, the songs capture the mysteries of love, but you don't leave the theatre humming. What lingers is the visual impact, the dramatic palettes of the two traditions, as happily melded in the final ballet, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, as they had been clumsy enemies in La Princesse Zenobia at the beginning. Yet ultimately this is a musical that leaves you cold. In an auditorium without air-conditioning, that takes some doing just now.
· Until September 6. Box office: 020-7960 4242
