Buckle up, Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man is set to seduce audiences at Milton Keynes Theatre this month, writes Georgina Butler.
Gritty, witty and definitely the most adults-only of all Bourne's shows, The Car Man is loosely based on Georges Bizet’s ever-popular opera, Carmen. The elements of lust, betrayal, revenge and murder remain, but the narrative is reimagined and the action is relocated from the familiar cigarette factory in nineteenth-century Spain to a greasy garage-diner in 1950s America.
Danced by Bourne’s New Adventures company, this is a steamy dance–theatre thriller that promises to ignite your senses and leave you breathless.
The Car Man follows Luca, a handsome and enigmatic drifter who rocks up in Harmony, a fictional small town in the American Midwest. Luca finds work as a car mechanic at the town’s garage-diner, run by Dino, but soon stirs up desire and tension by becoming involved with Dino’s wife, Lana. Things get hot and sweaty, and everyone’s lives are changed forever…
In 2000, when it premiered, The Car Man won the Evening Standard’s award for musical event of the year and the Los Angeles Drama Critics’ award for best choreography. The production was last performed in a unique revival for the Royal Albert Hall’s 150th birthday in 2022, when it once again earned critical acclaim and standing ovations. This season’s offering is the first revival of the touring production since 2015, so theatregoers should expect tickets to roar out of the box office.
Directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne, The Car Man dangerously twists and turns to a score arranged by Terry Davies, using music from Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite (after Bizet’s Carmen). Sets and costumes come courtesy of Bourne’s long-term collaborator Lez Brotherston.
Will Bozier and Harrison Dowzell are alternating as magnetic ‘car man’ Luca. They are starring alongside Cordelia Braithwaite and Ashley Shaw as the alluring Lana.
Rising stars Leonardo McCorkindale and Harry Ondrak-Wright are playing the troubled misfit, Angelo. Anna-Maria de Freitas and Kurumi Kamayachi are making their leading role debuts as Lana’s devoted sister, Rita. And Danny Reubens and Alan Vincent (who created the title role in 2000) are portraying Lana’s jealous husband, Dino.
Jack Frame, Serena McCall, Rae Miller, Jack Widdowson and Karishma Young are all making their new New Adventures debuts in this production. They are playing the other inhabitants of Harmony, alongside returning New Adventures performers Tanisha Addicott, Jamie Duncan-Campbell, Cameron Flynn, Rory Macleod, Callum Mann, Eleanor McGrath, Jarrod McWilliams, Eve Ngbokota, Nikolas Shikkis, Xavier Andriambolanoro-Sotiya and Lyra Treglown.
Rev your engines, you don't want to miss this!
Running time: Approximately 2 hours, including an interval.
Age guidance: 12+
Contains scenes of a sexual nature, brief nudity, strobe lighting and gunshots.
*Production photography by Johan Persson.
Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man is at Milton Keynes Theatre from Tuesday 7 to Saturday 11 July.
Georgina Butler is an editor, a dance writer and a ballet teacher.
