Eurobeat
Her Majesty's Theatre
Sun 9 July
Season closed


There must be heaps of people out there who just would not quite 'get' this wonderful musical, but if you are a fan of the Eurovision song contest, or at least are familiar with it, then you should have checked out this show.

The Eurovision Song Contest - what fantastic comic material to work with... 'Eurobeat' is (as you probably know by now) is a comic satire of the Eurovision song contest. We are the audience witnessing the show from "beautiful downtown Sarajevo, sorry about the rubble in the foyer". Twelve European countries are tonight going to battle it out for the title of Eurobeat song contest winner. What follows are twelve very Eurovisionesque songs right in front of our eyes.

The songs themselves are actually very skilfully performed with singers who really can sing and trashy back up dancers who really can dance. The cast of 20 are amazingly talented.

At the conclusion of the show the audience must vote as to who will win, so every performance is a little different. Will tonight's winner be the Russian boy band (those new kids on the Eastern Bloc) or the Latvian gay cowboy or that German guy singing about the joy of beer? You decide.

Of course if you know the Eurovision song contest you will know the Europe-wide voting system at the end of the show. "Heelllo Sarajevo thenk you for de funderful singings - here are the votes from Stockholm" etc etc. I love it. Eurobeat has that covered too.

What fun it is to laugh at the Europeans and feel superior. Sure Europe has masses of history and culture but hey, they sound funny when they try to speak English.

No, I'm not saying the show is somehow xenophobic or even racist. This new show demonstrates a bit of Australian self-confidence. Europeans laugh at Australia for being cultureless and now we can laugh at their absurd musical institution. The important thing is we are all laughing.

So 'Eurobeat' the musical deserves to be a hit. The comedy really is funny and the singing and dancing is very well devised for maximum comic affect. There is far too much going on to not be entertained. The night I saw the show the audience was having so much fun - waiving the supplied flags and cheering their adopted nation - yes, yes, yes, just like Eurovision.

Christian Goldsworthy