Went to see Tango Moderno at the Bristol Hippodrome tonight and it was announced, from the stage when we were all in and seated, that Vincent Simone was unable to perform having seriously hurt his back at the weekend. Vincent hobbled on stage, clearly in a lot of pain, and received a warm welcome from the disappointed audience. Despite the producer's optimism that he would return later in the week I reckon he should take the whole Bristol run off to recover properly. A show like this imposes an enormous strain on the dancers and returning to work too quickly could do untold damage. Anyway, as they say, the show must go on, and go on it did with Flavia filling the gaps by herself beautifully. We were warned we'd lose some of the story and we probably did, but I'm not sure we go to Vincent and Flavia tours to be told stories, more to see the dancing. The remaining dancers worked well, but without the central focus were perhaps a bit lost - apparently they'd only had a day to rejig the show. Tom Parsons' singing was very impressive and the narration was inventive, clever and very entertaining.
Still a good (if short) night out despite everything so thanks to Flavia and the team for working so hard and "get well soon" Vincent!
