Who doesn’t love Eurovision – with its corny songs, multiple costume changes, unparalleled enthusiasm, and awkward hosts? It’s become a phenomenon that in recent years sees groups of friends gathering together to enjoy the food of the host nation, while they watch the amazing, awkward, endearing and downright weird offerings put forth by each European country, as they do battle for the coveted trophy. Sadly, it only happens once a year, and even more disappointingly, down here in the antipodes, we can’t vote for our favourite performance. Happily, for the next couple of weeks, geography isn’t an issue and everyone can get involved in Eurovision. Well, almost Eurovision.
This year (in a parallel universe), the competition is being hosted by Bosnia-Herzegovina (and directed by Brian Godfrey) in the beautiful, if somewhat militarised, Sarajevo. The armed guards eye the audience with aggression; you WILL be having fun tonight, their looks seem to say. Our hosts for the evening are Boyka (just Boyka, presumably like Cher) and Sergei Puukolisto (played by siblings Paula and Brendan Cooney); she sporting a dizzying array of outfits (wonderful work as always from Ann Humphries) and he, an overdeveloped sense of his own attractiveness and a fondness for trivia about the major exports of each country. Via their playful passive-aggressive banter, we are steered through the performances of the evening, plus the counting of the votes and inevitable revelation of the winner.
The set for such a show can be tricky, given that each act requires their own flavour, and designer Fran Edwards has done a good job in providing appropriate (and often hilarious) backdrops throughout. However, the stage did appear quite bare in many scenes, changes between acts were a bit slow and the setting for the scenes between Boyka and Sergei, was a little lacking in pizazz. The whole production would have benefited from a permanent “Eurovision stage” to fill the space and tie each act together. The major detraction from the evening, it has to be said, was the lack of a live band, with backing tracks serving throughout. Whether this was a directorial choice is unclear but the inclusion of a band certainly would have added a more complete feel to the show.
The threat of violence from the guards was unnecessary as it is, indeed, a very entertaining evening. Some of the songs go a little longer than necessary, the standard of singing by the ensemble cast (most playing multiple roles) is maybe a little under-par for Northern Light, and some of the performers need to work on not breaking character, but the overall production is fun, full of energy and thoroughly enjoyable. This is a show that relies very heavily on audience participation – you are each assigned a country of origin on your way in, flags can be bought in the foyer to wave and show support, and during the interval it is the audience who will indeed vote to decide the winner of the evening – and the more you participate, the better time you’ll have.
Revel in high-energy, unapologetic pop-trash that Eurobeat: Almost Eurovision, offers.
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