Remembering The Oscars Review

A night celebrating the best of Oscar nominated films, dance and music! A hugely entertaining night worthy of an Oscar itself. 

Following on from their sell-out tour with their highly entertaining and innovative Remembering The Movies, Aljaž and Janette returned with this rescheduled date to the Newcastle Theatre Royal with their brand new show Remembering The Oscars.

How apt that this show came just after the real life Oscars and included the now obligatory joke referencing Will Smith made to reassure us there’d be no trouble between our married hosts and dancers Aljaž and Janette, which gained a laugh from the audience. 

Aljaz Skorjanec and Janette Manrara aren’t new to Newcastle. Aljaž having partnered our North East favourite Sara Davies (who attended the matinee performance) in Strictly Come Dancing and Janette who was here hosting the Strictly tour only months ago. They’re almost locals now. 

After a montage of hits played in short bursts showing us dance and songs from classic films we are introduced to the format of the night. Similar to the Oscars we were presented categories like Best Male, Female, Choreography (last seen in 1937) and film reliving oscar nominated and winning pieces.

The show intertwined between live singing, a video projected wall and our married couple presenting with an ease and of whom brought a lot of humour together. 

The dance was accompanied by our two live singers Janine Johnson and Richard Woodford who gave the show an extra element and I really enjoyed this live accompaniment to the dance. They both were given their own moments to impress by themselves as the dancers would break in between some scenes. Johnson particularly impressive in her renditions and showed she had an amazing voice. 

We saw tributes to Frozen, La La Land, Natalie Portmans Black Swan (with an acknowledgment of her efforts to learn ballet),The Godfather, Footloose, Rami Maleks portrayal of Freddie Mercury brought a fabulous queen tribute and later a second half Disney section brought us through this night of entertainment which was thoroughly enjoyable.

Aljaž and Janette danced with ease, and made it look so easy. These two, now departed from Strictly Come Dancing are a loss for the show, but hopefully our gain if they are able to continue bringing shows like this to us. The dance cast that supported were just as amazing and show off their skills just as much.

Like the Oscars, sadly it was for one night only in Newcastle but the tour continues, and if you do get a chance to see it on its travels I’d recommend it. 

For more info please visit https://www.rememberingtheoscars.com