Baz Luhrmann: Why I could step into Len Goodman's shoes on Strictly

Baz Luhrmann knows that he – or rather his films – have the power to make a certain generation feel very old. A musical version of Strictly Ballroom has just received its UK premiere at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds prompting many to wonder just how long it is since the original film hit the big screen. Fifteen years perhaps, maybe 20 tops?

“It will be 25 years next year, but if that makes you feel old, just think how it makes me feel,” says Luhrmann, who turned 54 earlier this year. “It’s funny because people will come up to me and say ‘I can’t believe it is 20 years since you made Romeo and Juliet or 15 years since Moulin Rouge!’ and my usual reaction is ‘I can’t believe you are old enough to have seen it the first time around’. All of us date ourselves by the films we watched and the songs we listened to in our formative years and yet none of us believe we ever age at all.”

Strictly Ballroom was in many ways an unlikely hit. That same year, the biggest grossing films included The Bodyguard, Basic Instinct and A Few Good Men, which had blockbuster budgets to match. Luhrmann’s tale of a maverick Aussie dancer Scott Hastings, which began life as a short play, was a little different.

“I was studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) in Brisbane and we were challenged to write a piece inspired by our own lives. Strictly Ballroom is a world of dressing up and that was the world I had grown up in.

“My mother was a ballroom dance teacher, my grandma made me my first Latin costume which was inspired by one of Elvis’s jumpsuits only with more sequins on it.

“At the time the theatre was dominated by psychological drama and I wanted to get away from that. I’d always seen ballroom dancing as working-class theatre and I knew that there was a story to be told. As a teenager I had gone through a pretty tumultuous time. My parents had split up, I’d run away from home, but at NIDA I guess I really found what it was that I wanted to do and the rest of my career really sprang from Strictly Ballroom.”

For those not familiar with the original, Scott is Brendan Cole with added attitude. He does lifts where he’s not supposed to and includes step sequences which have the judging panel of the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship weeping into their scorecards. There’s also a large helping of romance and a feelgood ending, which makes this a perfect Christmas show.

“When I wrote that 30 minute play I was in a phase where I would tell people ‘art is my life’ . Like much has changed. Art is still my life,” laughs Luhrmann, who is speaking from his home in New York. “And as much as it was inspired by my own upbringing, Scott was really my tribute to one of my tutors at NIDA who also blazed a trail in the dance world. Keith Bain came from the same small town as me and he became this absolutely revered choreographer. It was he who told me that you should never stop learning. It was Keith who also made me realise that there isn’t just one way to do a cha-cha and there is no point dancing with perfect technique if you do it without joy.

“It must have struck a chord with people because the reaction of those first audiences was incredible. I don’t think I had expected quite that rush and quite quickly I realised that it might have a life beyond that small stage.”

Luhrmann was approached by music executive Ted Albert and his wife Antoinette about the possibility of adapting the play for the big screen. They had just set up a film production company and saw something in the young writer and director.

“In some ways I was lucky that they were willing to take a chance on someone who was completely untested as a film director, but because of that initial audience reaction I was really vigilant about who owned the story. There was no way I was going to let someone else direct it. If they had said no, then I would have walked away.”

Last year, Luhrmann got to revisit the world of Strictly Ballroom when he and his wife, the producer Catherine Martin, created a new musical version that opened in Melbourne, but he is now much less precious about handing it over to new owners.

“Doing the musical was a wonderful experience. While we live in America, Australia is still home and it meant we could go back and reconnect for a little while which is always good for the soul.

“Strictly still feels like my baby, but as any good parent knows there comes a point when you have to let your child go and I can’t think anyone more that I would like to look after it in its next chapter than Drew McOnie who is both the choreographer and director for Leeds.

“He’s not only a huge fan of the film, but he understands that on stage this has to be a very different beast. He wants to put his own mark on it and that is exactly as it should be.

“I remember once talking to George Lucas about letting Star Wars go. It is hard when you have been so closely involved in something, but you just have to remember that times move on.

“If I was an actor I wouldn’t still be playing Romeo at 54 and it feels right that this show has a young, dynamic director in charge. Besides I have so many other plates to spin, being overwhelmed by work is my usual state of being.”

While Luhrmann’s filmography includes the epic Australia, starring Nicole Kidman, and a 
lavish adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, recently most of his efforts have been concentrated on the small screen, having collaborated with award-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis on the Netflix series The Get Down. Set in the Bronx and detailing the birth of hip-hop, the show was described by one critic as an “insanely extravagant love letter to New York in the 1970s” and a second series is due out next year.

However, while it may be the sounds of Grandmaster Flash that have been occupying his thoughts most recently, those Latin and South American beats of his youth have never quite left him. The jumpsuits are long gone, but a few years ago he was persuaded to appear as a guest judge on Dancing with the Stars, America’s version of Strictly Come Dancing – which took inspiration for its title from Luhrmann’s movie. “Oh God, I was terrible. The truth is I wasn’t very good at being critical. Having said that I hear that the head judge Len Goodman is retiring, so if anyone needs me they know where I am.”

Someone at the Beeb should get the contract drafted immediately.

Strictly Ballroom, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, to January 21. 0113 217 7000, wyp.org.uk