Jonathan Gray sees Chicos Mambo – I had so wanted to enjoy TUTU but, sadly, the whole thing barely raised a smile from me.
| Title | TUTU |
| Company | Chicos Mambo |
| Venue | Sadler’s Wells East, London |
| Date | 11 February 2026 |
| Reviewer | Jonathan Gray |
Oh dear! I had so wanted to enjoy TUTU, the comedy dance show presented by Chicos Mambo at Sadler’s Wells East. Performed by a company of personable but only so-so dancers – six men and one woman – the audience seemed to appreciate the antics shown on stage, but, sadly, the whole thing barely raised a smile from me.
Choreographed and directed by the company’s artistic director, Philippe Lafeuille, TUTU is an affectionate skit on all forms of dance that has, incredibly, won awards at the Avignon Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The comic ideas behind many of the sketches in the show are potentially clever but the resulting routines are woefully derivative and must have drawn inspiration from sources such as the Black Light Theatre of Prague, Momix and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. The pacing of the show is saggy and woolly, and the dancing should be stronger and more polished than it actually is.
The evening includes visual trickery and colourful costumes, but for 80 minutes you are made to endure camp, weak send-ups of The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, a parody of the Argentine Tango, and spoofs on Cirque du Soleil, Strictly Come Dancing and a Rhythmic Gymnastics routine. Even the more promising sequences in TUTU, such as a group of babies dancing to The Rite of Spring, or the tongue-in-cheek drag lampoon of a Pina Bausch show (all evening dresses and long flailing hair), fail to hit their target and become silly and embarrassing after just a few minutes.
I like a good laugh at the theatre as much as anyone else, especially at a dance performance, and I feel like I am being a killjoy in writing this review, but I found TUTU a huge disappointment and don’t really have anything further to add to it than that.
Jonathan Gray was editor of Dancing Times from 2008 to 2022.
He studied at The Royal Ballet School, Leicester Polytechnic, and Wimbledon School of Art where he graduated with a BA Hons in Theatre Design. He was on the Curatorial Staff of the Theatre Museum, London, from 1989 to 2005, assisting on a number of dance-related exhibitions, and helping with the recreation of original designs for a number of The Royal Ballet’s productions including Danses concertantes, Daphnis and Chloë, and The Sleeping Beauty.
Jonathan Gray has also contributed to the Financial Times and The Guardian, written programme articles for The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, and is co-author of the book Unleashing Britain: Theatre gets real 1955-64, published in 2005. He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.