Top Hat

About

Tuesday 7 - Saturday 11 October 2025
Theatre Royal
Tickets £23.00 to £60.00

Kenny Wax and Jonathan Church Theatre Productions present the Chichester Festival Theatre Production Top Hat

Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
Based on RKO's Motion Picture
Adapted for the stage by Matthew White & Howard Jacques

There may be trouble ahead,
But while there's moonlight, and music,
And love, and romance…
Let's face the music and dance

You're invited to the musical equivalent of the finest vintage champagne. Effervescent, elegant and exhilarating, Top Hat is a heady romantic cocktail laced with sparklingly witty dialogue, stunning choreography, lavish sets and gorgeous costumes. Irving Berlin's irresistible score includes some of Hollywood's greatest songs, the immortal Cheek to Cheek, Let's Face the Music and Dance, Top Hat White Tie and Tails and Puttin' on the Ritz.

When Broadway star Jerry Travers arrives in London to open a new show, he crosses paths with model Dale Tremont, whose beauty sleep is rudely interrupted by Jerry tap dancing in the hotel suite above hers. Instantly smitten, Jerry vows to abandon his bachelor life to win her – but the path of true love never does run smooth. Especially since Dale has mistaken Jerry for his hapless producer Horace, who's trying to avoid the wrath of his formidable wife Madge, and Dale's own fiery Italian admirer is planning a trip to Venice for her to showcase his couture gowns…

Based on the classic 1935 film which starred Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the stage adaptation's West End premiere won the 2013 Olivier Award for Best New Musical and the Evening Standard Award for Best Night Out. Acclaimed American director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall, whose Tony and Olivier Award-winning production of Anything Goes recently wowed audiences and critics in London and on television, comes to the UK to stage this brand-new production.

Leading the company of Irving Berlin's Top Hat is Broadway's Phillip Attmore winner of the Fred and Adele Astaire Award for Best Male Dancer – making his UK debut as Jerry Travers. Joining him is Lucy St. Louis whose acclaimed West End credits include Wicked and The Phantom of the Opera, dazzling in the role of Dale Tremont.

Also joining the cast include Lindsay Atherton, Rhiannon Bacchus, Jeremy Batt, Freddie Clements, Pedro Donoso, Bethan Downing, Autumn Draper, Tilly Ducker, Laura Hills, Connor Hughes, James Hume, George Lyons, David McIntosh, Jordan Oliver, Emily Ann Potter, Molly Rees Howe, Kirsty Sparks, Thomas Toyan-Browne.

Further principle casting to be announced.

Cast and performance schedule subject to change without notice.