@ Edinburgh Playhouse, until Sun 14 Jun 2015

Michael Flatley takes his show back on tour to celebrate twenty years since it first began. He is the self-proclaimed Lord of the Dance and the traditional Irish style, fused with a modern twist, doesn’t disappoint. Flatley now takes a back seat to his younger counterparts, choosing direction over dancing, leaving the two leads to fight it out to be crowned the new ‘Lord of the Dance’.

There are fireworks, fabulous fiddlers, plenty toe-tapping, powerful music and oodles of glitter but Dangerous Games is not without fault. Most notably the storyline is weak and at times lost amongst unnecessary interludes of singing and weak solos. The interludes are clearly necessary for the dancers to change from one incredible costume to the next but they pull the show down and the passionate audience are clearly just waiting for the next big Irish dance number.

But despite these obvious weaknesses the show is still an incredible spectacle and the quality of the dancing on display in those showstopping numbers astounding. Why then do they include balletic numbers when the dancers, in general, are quite clearly not classically trained? It is an unnecessary disappointment for any dancers or dance critics in the audience but thankfully, just as the audience are losing interest, a foot stomping number comes back to keep everybody clapping along and enthused.

The crowd themselves are a spectacle with an almost cult following for the great Michael Flatley. When he appeared on a video in the background the women in the crowd went wild!

Flatley’s vision lives on in his young dancers whose control, precision and timing make the show such a success. Despite an odd fairytale-like backdrop and the aforementioned unnecessary singers and wannabe ballet dancers the show keeps you hooked waiting for the next clicks, toe-taps and jigs.