Sky Arts
98 minutes
8 May 2020
Download and streaming

Also available on DVD and Blu-ray

Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man (digital release)

‘Superb, witty, drop-dead sexy’ Daily Telegraph

‘Gripping. Explosive. Erotic’ Mail on Sunday

‘Glamorous, sexy, funny, and dangerous. A triumph!’ Evening Standard

‘It’s dance theatre at its most powerful and passionate’ Culturefly

Matthew Bourne‘s The Car Man is one of modern dance’s most thrilling and entertaining shows and a signature production for New Adventures. First seen in 2000, when it won the Evening Standard Award for “Musical Event of the Year”, it has proved to be a smash-hit in the UK and around the world. This recording for Sky Arts was made at Sadler’s Wells during the production’s most recent revival.

The show is loosely based on Bizet’s popular opera Carmen and has one of the most instantly recognisable scores in New Adventures’ repertory, brilliantly arranged by Terry Davies. The familiar 19th-century Spanish cigarette factory of the opera becomes a greasy garage-diner in the American mid-west of the 1960s. The arrival of a handsome stranger disturbs the dreams and passions of those who live and work there. Fuelled by heat and desire, the townsfolk are driven into an unstoppable spiral of greed, lust, betrayal, and revenge.

Lez Brotherston’s epic design and Chris Davey’s evocative lighting perfectly complement Matthew Bourne’s vivid choreographic storytelling, which draws on a wealth of cinematic references. Together with the glorious dancing of a wonderful cast, they create a delightful, dangerous, and ultimately uncompromising vision of small-town America.

Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man is also available on DVD and Blu-ray

(Music courtesy of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd.)