Starstruck review – an opulent and fizzy Gene Kelly revival

Glasgow Theatre Royal
Scottish Ballet make a post-pandemic return with a rousing version of Kelly’s ballet about Greek gods in the south of France

Sixty years ago, American dancer and choreographer Gene Kelly created Pas de Dieux for the Paris Opera Ballet (the first American to do so). Eighteen months ago, Scottish Ballet leapt off stage while touring in America to race home and lock themselves indoors. They’ve returned with Starstruck, a glitzy revival of Kelly’s ballet that hopes to mark that comeback with a bang – and in this, they succeed.

In Pas de Dieux, the gods Zeus and Aphrodite – accompanied by the mischievous Eros – descend from Mount Olympus to the balmy south of France. A few meddling arrows, fistfights and broken hearts later, all ends well with mortal and godly lovers correctly reunited. Artistic director Christopher Hampson worked with Kelly’s widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, to reconstruct the ballet by deciphering Kelly’s scribbled annotations on George Gershwin’s score and sifting through archive photographs and rehearsal footage.

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