News location:

Canberra Today 15°/17° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Not quite Eurovision

YOU all know Eurovision.

Golding as show hostess Boyka
Golding as show hostess Boyka
It’s the annual televised song contest that everybody loves to ridicule.  And not just that, says Sarah Golding, who plays the lovely co-host of the event, Boyka. There are people she knows who have Eurovision parties every year.

Love or hate it, the likelihood is that you’ll find “Eurobeat,” the stage musical inspired by the contest, screamingly funny.

Prizewinning choreographer Jordan Kelly has been putting the dancers through their paces and we caught a small glimpse of that this morning at the media call, with a more than suggestive showstopper called “Bang me.”

For  the purposes of the musical, the “competing” countries are Italy, Germany, Iceland, Morocco, Estonia, Lichtenstein, Hungary, Greece, Ireland, Russia, United Kingdom, Ukraine, France, Sweden and Norway the host country as Bosnia-Herzegovina during a very troubled time.

As Golding points out, there’s no shortage of stereotypical jokes about different nationalities in this production, which, with an enthusiastic young cast of 20, promises a light-hearted approach to the subject. And yes, you can be sure there’ll be an ABBA sendup in the form of the Swedish pop group, Avla.

There are, she realises, pitfalls in a musical that is largely a send up. How far do you take it? “If you play it, too straight just the same as Eurovision,” she says, but of course it must pay homage to the original so “we just lovingly take the piss out of it.” Contrary to what you expect, she adds, “It’s pretty subtle.”

Not that there are no serious moments in a show that is sometimes “a little bit tacky”, she adds. For Boyka and her dumb cohost Sergei (Lachlan Ruffy) come from “a difficult part of the world, so the script is replete with “gentle jokes about the struggles.”

But most of it is  sheer fun. Apart from one boy band nothing is lip-synched — and Golding gets to sing and dance too.

If you haven’t seen the show before,  at the end of the performances the audiences have the opportunity to vote (having been given  a nationality on the night and handed a voting form upon entry) and the outcome is different each night, with the winners returned to the stage for a reprise of their winning entry.

“Eurobeat”, at ANU Arts Centre, April 5-20, bookings to  6257 1950 or www.canberrarep.org.au

Dinner and Show Packages available from Teatro Vivaldi on 6257 2718.

Eurobeat dancers
Eurobeat dancers

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Helen Musa

Helen Musa

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews