Brighton Year-Round 2026

The Brown Suite

BlakBric, presented by Fundamentally Dance

Genre: Dance, Musical Theatre

Venue: Theatre Royal Brighton

Festival: Brighton Year-Round

Low Down

Review

If ever a show demanded an after-party, it’s this one. The audience begins whooping at lights up as the company of eight dancers strike exaggerated poses under a backdrop of fluorescent neon beams.

The Brown Suite may be a naff name for a night club – or indeed a show – but enter and you’ll be bewitched. Here’s a hot Harlem night, where the music’s booming and the bodies are moving. Here are super cool dudes in 70’s flares and cutaway vests and two tall dames in fluttering skirts and heels.

Created by BlacBrik, aka Londoner Nahum McLean and US born Darius Drooh, the work grew from a duet made in 2023 driven by James Brown’s music. It was picked up by international producers Fundamentally Dance and developed into this succinct, full-scale show. Determined that the music should lead the story, the team have assembled a slew of songs that hint at narrative without being overly literal. Brown’s lyrics, full of machismo and often well-dodgy to modern ears, limit the storytelling; it’s a nightclub, couples meet and dance, the men brawl over a woman. Songs by Etta James and Sam Cooke, sad and swooning, provide some balance. But The Brown Suite isn’t aiming for depth, it’s an unashamedly crowd-pleasing, joyful and above all beautifully performed series of vignettes of a time when the people of Harlem could express themselves most wholly in black-owned dance-halls.

Movement is as freewheeling in rhythm and pace as the music, ranging from the ultra-high leg kicks of ballet-trained Leila Wright (a ringer for the smouldering Laura Dern in Wild at Heart) to hip-hop infused groove from Darius Drooh. Syncopated from head to toe and clearly having a ball, Birmingham-born Hugo Bragg brims with personality, and gets to wear the best looking top from costumer Maybelle Laye’s covetable range.

The pairing of Nahum McLean and Marie Astrid Mence is deliciously nuanced, from tender and floating to fierce and expansive. As an ensemble the company feels organically connected when moving in unison; the stage is free of props with the wings exposed allowing Joshie Harriette’s remarkable lighting to shape and augment the space. When things get hot in the nightclub it’s as if the place is suddenly underwater and filled with glowing orbs. Perhaps Shirley MacLaine and Sammy Davis Junior hoofing it up in ‘Sweet Charity’ was on BlacBrik’s watch list. It certainly shares that film’s glorious technicolour vibes and Bob Fosse precision.

Sitting somewhere between a juke-box musical and an episode of Strictly, with lots of routines played front of stage for peak audience pleasure, The Brown Suite is not going to revolutionise the UK’s dance scene. What it does offer is a fun night out in a little over an hour, so plenty of time to go clubbing. I’m in.

Published November 4, 2026 by Lisa Wolfe