If the Reading Hexagon can be considered the court of public opinion, Giovanni Pernice is an innocent man. Occasional shouts of “We love you, Gio!” ring out during the second stop of his stage tour – the adulation reinforcing that the dancer embroiled in Strictly Come Dancing’s biggest-ever fallout has the ardent backing of this 1,000-strong crowd.
For the uninitiated: Pernice’s fall from grace began last year, when his partner, Amanda Abbington, dropped out of the competition in week four. What followed was a series of bullying claims from her end (along with others from unnamed former partners of Pernice’s), and denials from his.
Things seemed to have mellowed by the end of last year, when Pernice and Anton Du Beke, co-star of this Together stage tour, fronted a BBC travel show, followed by a second in March. But ahead of Strictly’s 22nd season beginning in autumn, speculation built that he would not be a part of it – confirmed earlier this month, with Pernice absent from the line-up due to an “ongoing investigation” by the channel. The travel show has reportedly been shelved too.
No matter; Team Gio are here to nail their colours to the mast, filling auditorium seats across the pair’s 30-date UK tour, before Pernice’s bumper five-month solo run begins in January. Fifty miles west of the Strictly dance floor, there were standing ovations and walking sticks waving during Saturday’s teatime show – and no mention of the bullying brouhaha whatsoever. Pernice, who quipped on opening night that “people don’t always like me”, had excised the gag by their second outing.
This latest conceit from “the nation’s favourite double act” (according to their own billing) centres on Pernice having missed his mentor during their respective solo tours, with both parties here to celebrate being together again. On we go through a tried-and-tested checklist of easy wins: sequinned shirts, jukebox hits, innuendo that might well have made Brucie blush. Pernice and Du Beke are not an obvious pairing, and their repartee is often wanting, the exchanges throughout the first half largely relying on mocking the former’s Ita-nglish, which gets tired as quickly as you might expect.
Things are mercifully revived with a 50s rockabilly number. Du Beke, who left Strictly three years ago, is clearly in his element, his penchant for variety-style entertaining plain whether he is singing or dancing (though he does tumble twice), or generally titillating the audience. Pernice is less adept in all but the dancing, though even his worst enemy would struggle to call it anything other than stunning.
The excellent Together company – a four-piece band, and six dancer-singers, including Strictly’s Lauren Oakley – help to keep the energy of the mostly white-haired crowd at feverish levels. Ditto a beautiful Argentine tango from Pernice, and a Eurovision mashup complete with Benny and Bjorn impressions, and Du Beke bearing Union Jack boxers. Seismologists may not register the tremors induced by Taylor Swift’s concert, but the thrum of foot-tapping and dancing in the aisles by the end is an approximation of sorts. The cheesiness, at least, is off the scale.
It’s easy to see why audiences struggle to reconcile this stage version of Pernice with rumours of his punishing rehearsal room mien; why the adoration goes on. As those clamouring to buy their branded magnets and t-shirts attest, glitterball or not, he has won anyway.
Anton & Giovanni Together: the Live Tour continues until July 21; tickets antonandgiovanni.com