Here Come The Boys is the latest dance show to hit the West End, all be it for a short time. It features 4 male strictly pros (Aljaž Škorjanec, Pasha Kovalev, Graziano di Prima and Robin Windsor), fellow strictly pro Nadiya Bychkova doing it for the girls, Karim Zeroual, a strictly finalist presents who presents the show (as well as getting his dance shoes on occasionally) and DJ and beat Boxer, Bass 6.

The first thing that hits you about the show is the energy that bursts from the stage whenever the dancers do their thing. The variety of dance on show is huge, from jive to swing, to ballroom to salsa . There are also elements of street dance thrown in, especially in the ‘Tik-Tok’ section and each of the dancers not only impress at their ability to conquer all of these types of dance but bring their own flavour to each of the styles.

The premise running throughout the show is that there is a battle between the boys to see who can be crowned ‘King of Dance’ and after the style is chosen the boys battle it out. Whilst the format feels a bit forced, especially when it turns out that each of the boys wins one battle each, it does give the audience an opportunity to hear a bit from each of them and give a clear reason for both the dancers to have their time in the spotlight and an easy segue to move from one style to the other.

There were other moments when the style of dance was less ridged and instead the theme inspired the choreography. There was a section about Heroes where we saw dances to everything from Queen to Ricky Martin and in Act 2 an ‘after hours’ section saw the dance couples get hot and steamy together. The music choice was one of the highlights from the evening with a huge range of songs but I loved the fact that even if sections like the swing section the songs always felt current and fitted the energy of the show perfectly.

The choice of the ‘boys’ to lead the show was well planned. Each of them have a different look, speciality and personality. Aljaž, Pasha, Graziano and Robin each had exceptional dance partners to help them show what they really could do. Bringing some girl power to the proceedings was Nadiya, declaring that rather than a bond girl she would be the first female bond. Judging by her stamina in her 6 back to back dance numbers and wowing in all of them I wouldn’t put anything past her.

Karim hosts the evening and he was a brilliant choice, clearly drawing on his past presenting experience. He had an easy patter about him, getting the audience on side quickly as well as getting the opportunity to show just why he made the finals on Strictly, especially in the more modern numbers, such as the Tik-Tok segment.

Strictly Fans will adore Here Come The Boys with the chance to see 5 former/current professional Strictly Dancers as well as a former contestant but equally if you have never seen an episode before but love your dance then I would still recommend a trip to the London Palladium. The dance styles are varied but what is constant is the talent from all of the dancers on stage.

Here Come The Boys is running until the 9th June at the London Palladium. To find out more and book tickets you can visit their website here.

If you like my review of Here Come The Boys then you might also like my review of Cruise and Abba Mania. You might also like my quiz about West End Musicals.