The Red Shoes
The Alhambra

FROM Edward Scissorhands to the Fifties Americana-inspired Car Man, cinematic influences are never far from a Matthew Bourne show.

In The Red Shoes the director and choreographer takes Powell and Pressburger's 1948 masterpiece, regarded as the greatest ballet film ever made, as the inspiration for a gorgeous production exploring the love, passion and sacrifice behind great art.

With the story's original themes of vanity and redemption pretty dated now, Bourne adopts the show-within-a-show approach; allowing a young ballerina, Victoria Page, to step into the shoes of an injured leading lady and shine in a ballet of The Red Shoes.

What sets out as a moonlit love story, with Victoria falling for the show's dashing composer, quickly turns into an unravelling of horror and obsession. Victoria struggles between romantic love and her passion for dance. Only when she's wearing the cursed red ballet shoes can she fulfil, at any cost, her desire to strive for the highest artistic achievement, personified by controlling impresario, Boris Lermontov.

To be fair, if you're not familiar with Hans Christian Anderson's original story of the Red Shoes, or the Powell and Pressburger movie, you may struggle to follow it all. But it's so beautifully staged, and performed, you're drawn in, regardless. "I don't really know what was going on, but it was lovely to look at," said my teenage niece, Ellie, after last night's performance.

The Red Shoes is in turn romantic, tense, moving, creepy, surreal, (even slightly bonkers) and melodramatic - everything that made Powell and Pressburger's film so memorable and influential. And laced throughout is Bourne's own brand of humour, breaking the tension when needed.

Lez Brotherston's set is both simple and epic, with a mobile proscenium arch defining much of the action. Scenes and dance sequences flow seamlessly into each other, from the stilted drawing-room where Victoria first dances for Lermontov to the lively Ballon de Plage beachball routine and the chic Monte Carlo terrace, where the creative juices of Lermontov and his company flow. Whether it's the grand Covent Garden where Victoria first comes to life on stage or the cramped music hall where she feels the life being sucked out of her, the theatre-in-a-theatre concept draws the audience in, both sides of the curtain.

An impressive range of dance techniques, showcasing the remarkable talents of the New Adventures ensemble, is at one with the dramatic Bernard Herrmann score. One of the many joyful things about a Matthew Bourne show is that his dancers are very much individuals; each one expressing their character with exquisite detail, down to the flicker of a facial expression.

Heading up the fine cast last night was Ashley Shaw - mesmerising as Victoria Page. Barely off the stage, her every movement captured Victoria's passion, frustration and frenzied terror, as the irresistible red shoes took control.

Sam Archer was a fabulous Lermontov, tortured and tyrannical, and Chris Trenfield gave a beautifully moving performance as composer and doomed lover, Julian Craster.

The Red Shoes is an instant Bourne classic - as sublime as his early triumph, Swan Lake.

Runs until Saturday.