Reviews Adelaide

THE ADVERTISER - SATURDAY JULY 8th
FINALLY, all the fun of the Eurovision Song Contest reaches Australia with an inspired parody which frequently surpasses the quality of the real thing.
Craig Christie and Andrew Patterason's musical EUROBEAT serves up a cultural smorgasbord, with extra cheese. It is arguably the first interactive musical, as audience members are assigned nationalities, compelled to wave flags, then take part in voting which follows Eurovision rules and determines the outcome. It is impossible to to tell who are the trues stars of the show: The hilarious hosts, the superb singers, the dazzling choreography or the outrageous songs themselves.
Presenters Bronya and Sergei, Julia Zemiro and Jason Geary welcome us to the war-torn Sarajevo then proceed to butcher the English language before performing a hystrical tastless song and dance history of Bosnia-Hertzegovina.
On opening night, the Russian boy band, the K.G. Boyz took the honours, but the real winner was the audience.


INDAILY - The Online News Service of the Independent Weekly
The subtitle to Eurobeat says that it's "almost Eurovision". Not quite: I reckon it's better. Representiing 12 European countries, a cast of 21 Aussie comedians take to the stage of Her Majesty's Theatre to offer an affectionate and apt musical comedy based on the popular song extravaganza. The big puzzle is why it took so long for someone to have a go at Eurovision in the first place, what with its earnest archetypes, broken English, rhinestone glamour, sappy tunes and Continental attempts at flair. And to all such wonderful offerings, the crew presents a side-stitching parody... I mean, tribute.
But be cautioned, you don't need to be a Eurovision fan to appreciate this. Drawing from the broad palette of popular culture and cultural stereotypes, Eurobeat crosses genres as easily as it does cultures, and gets the audience involved with flag waving, patriotic cheering (determined by your seating assignments) and, of course, voting. Yes, there's innuendo, of course there are malapropisms, certainly there are puns aplenty; there are even miscues, false steps, and the requisite choreographed wardrobe malfunction. Out of concern of giving too many of the hilarious surprises away, I implore you: go see this. It's nice to see people actually having fun on stage. And besides, what could be funnier than the worst of Western Europe and the best of Eastern Europe?

RIP IT UP MAGAZINE JULY 8TH 2006.
Seriously Kids - if I had the budget I would go and see this show every single night of it's Adelaide run and then hock the house and head to Perth for the season there. I just got home from the opening night of this marvellous musical comedy and my face is aching from laughing, smiling and singing so much. EUROBEAT is of course ALMOST EUROVISION and you, my dear constituants already are aware of my deep passion for all things Eurovision. And Eurobeat has all the elements in spades, the glamour, the spandex, the glitter, the awkward choreography, the unflinching confidence, the cheese - spread over a much more palatable (and funnier) twelve acts (rather than the 30+ in the real thing).

Set at the 2006 Eurovision final in beautiful down town and war torn Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovnia, the fun begins when you get to your seat and find out which country you will be adopting for the evening (Go Hungary!) and working out who will be 'flag captain'. In true Euro-style our hosts for the evening Sergei Puukolisto (Jason Geary) and the shimmering Bronya (Julia 'Rock Kwiz' Zemiro) start proceedings with glitz, glamour and sparkling commentary that can only come from an English as a second language country. The temptation to take the accents to ridiculous parody has been avoided and like the rest of the show is nicely underplayed with perfect comedic impact. Bronya and Sergei are magnificent as are all 12 acts that cover every Eurovision cliche you can think of. Folk singing (Go Hungary!), Irish ballads (hilarious performed by a Bono look-a-like called Ronan Corr), tame 'sexy' dancing, boy band precision dancing (Russia's KGBoyz) and Abba-ish Swedish entrants ALVA are a blur of white hair, teeth and costumes. Without giving you too many spoilers (because you really should just go and see it for yourselves) special mention should be made of Greek entry Peresphone and her Nana Mouskouri-esque Oh Aphrodite, Icelands Gert Grollmersdetter sounds like the only female singer anybody knows from Iceland, Estonia's Toomas Jerker & the Stone Hard Boys who's Together Again For The First Time is a scream of homo-erotic lyrics and choreography and a near perfect Eurovision song. My favourite tonight was the side splitting Kraftwerk-ish Nepotism representing Lichtenstein. Before intermission you get to confer with your newly found countrymen and vote for your top five acts. Then nip off for a drink and to queue for the loo.

Once back inside it's time for the half time spectacular, which is a masterpiece. After a hysterically politically incorrect and traditional Eurovision 'historical' set up, Bronya takes the lead vocal on I'm Sarajevo (Taste Me) which starts with the sensational line 'Once upon a time there was a turnip in a meadow wondering where on Earth it's life may lead'. The number builds into a frantic flag waving crecendo and you'll be humming it for days. The vote count comes next and crowd favourites become apparent early on, but it is non the less exciting and when the winners are announced the winning country performs their song again.

The show is so funny, engaging and cleverly put together that you don't even need to be a Eurovision fan to enjoy it. It is the most fun I have had at a theatre show in years. EUROBEAT is an absolute triumph.
PS : The Adelaide run of Eurobeat has just been extended til July 23rd. Tickets available for Bass. Trust me you will LOVE IT!