Eurobeat

"Look, the tickets are inexpensive, it's a great night out, and it's a show that is incredibly well put together," says Glynn Nicholas with his impresario's hat pressed firmly into place upon his head. And why wouldn't he be spruiking for 'Eurobeat', a small budget show he saw as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival a year or two back and thought 'hmmm, there's potential'?

Being a theatrical producer is a job where you put your money where your mouth is, and it's damned risky business to boot.

"I'm just polishing this diamond of a show," he says modestly, "and ummm...", he realizes he's mixing the metaphors, "... embroidering the sequins on the edges. It's a little gem of a show and the response has been fantastic, just as I thought it would be."

He's talking of the Melbourne season for 'Eurobeat', a night of fun and song modeled on the outrageous competition that is the Eurovision Song Contest.

In Eurobeat the audience become part of the action as it unfolds. Twenty performers represent contesting countries - there's Italy, Germany, Iceland, United Kingdom, Estonia, Greece, Russia, Hungary, Ireland, France, Lichtenstein and Sweden - and each table in the audience gets to support a 'country' and vote for the winning entries. This is audience participation all right!

"I saw the show and thought it was fabulous - an idea that was just so obvious - and I thought if I could make some small changes and turn it into an international show then I'd be interested. I just suggested taking one of the songs out and writing a new ones, which the writers did, and there we were."

We discuss the pool of talent there is to draw on for music theatre and musicals here in Australia; there seems to be a lot of talent to draw on, what with shows like 'The Boy From Oz' and 'Dusty' touring the country.

"Well, we should be doing a lot more musicals," he avers. "Here we are actively investing in one of the youngest shows there is. Here we are, and we should be actively supported - it's not been easy," he points out again.

So what is the appeal of 'Eurobeat', which at first look appears to be the sort of show I'd avoid like the plague. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I'd avoid it like the Eurovision Song Contest.

"This is a full on funny one! There were 30 in the cast - had the director's cousin sort of thing, but it had this element of warmth about it, so no way was it a show where the audience is intimidated by all these amazing people. I mean, they are amazing, but they're great.

"It's one of those shows which is irresistible in a way, because the quality is in the songs themselves. I was watching Eurovision just the other night and I was thinking 'this is so on the money', and then I was thinking 'our songs are so much better than these songs'."

Packaged together and set in Sarajevo in 2006, this is just like the real thing, only not.

When I ask about the mother ship - the Eurovision Song Contest - I ask whether there is an element of fascination which comes from 'watching a train wreck'? "I'm sure there is, but it's interesting to see how tribal people get with supporting 'their' territories. They really get right behind it -'their' table and 'their' team - it's great to see," Nicholas laughs.

Alex Wheaton

'Eurobeat' can be found at Her Majesty's Theatre from Thurs 6 July