The Empire Strips Back transports London audience to a galaxy far far away to a world where the Star Wars characters you know and love are live on stage…performing burlesque.

Throughout the show we meet iconic Star Wars characters from Luke Skywalker to Jabba The Hut and from Princess Leia through to Storm Troopers this production knew how to turn up the heat of Star Wars. The production values on the show are brilliant – the characters are easily identifiable with iconic costumes converted to make the show a steamy one. The costumes cannot be praised enough – underneath the easily identifiable costumes was lingerie that fitted in well with the original costume and the attention to detail as to how the costume was going to be removed should also be commended. A highlight of this was CP30 being undressed by Jawas rather than disassembled. The combination of the familiar costumes combined with the strip tease element really made this a burlesque show to remember.

On top of the adapted iconic costumes were clever set pieces and puppets which really help transport the audience to a galaxy far far away. The show opens with Luke Skywalker cleaning Landspeeder and we have scenes with a huge Jabba the Hut and a prisoner as well as a stripper Princess Leia whilst R2-D2 watches on. The lighting design by Jason Kent Hermanson was also out of this world, changing with the mood of each number and enhancing the feel of the show.

The show itself keeps to a fairly simple formula with an act, followed by the curtains closing and our host for the evening chatting to the audience whilst the next act is being prepared behind the curtain. Sometimes I would have loved to have seen more act and less host but I understand why it was necessary, especially when some of the set pieces were so large! Our host for the evening was Travis Jay and he built up a nice rapport with the audience with lots of audience interaction.

The cast themselves were phenomenal dancers including Savane Boisleveau, Oakleigh Briscoe, Samantha Ho, Freja Nicole, Brogan Paris, Jolie Ponchetti, Ema Steindl and Cass Tattersall. Each of them had a moment in the spotlight performing as a familiar character but the highlight was when they were all on stage as Darth Vader and storm troopers. The dance styles were also varied and included a more contemporary number between 2 Twi’leks and our Princess Leia showed off her ballet ability before turning into a bad ass! There were also a few men in the company including David Devyne as Hans Solo and Dennis Anin-Badu as Chewbacca but whilst they were talented dancers their numbers didn’t quite deliver the same burlesque, strip tease vibes as the female dancers. The striptease itself throughout the show is probably one of the more modest I have seen in a burlesque show but with costumes this good it was easy to understand why they leaning into keep it on rather than take it off!!

The music choices were often unexpected, I hadn’t expected to see Emperor Palpatine dancing to wrecking ball or Chewbacca to Backstreet Boys but these unexpected choices made the night even more fun and left me on my toes, never sure what I might be hearing next.

The Empire Strips Back is a great night out, whilst the burlesque element alone may not be out of this world, when combined with iconic costumes and props plus a talented cast it makes it certain that these are actually the droids (and show) that you are looking for!!!

The Empire Strips Back is on at Riverside Studio until 17th August. You can find out more and book here.

If you like this review you might also like my review of Moulin Rouge, Cabaret and Mean Girls.