Eurobeat

A spoof on the Eurovision song contest, Eurobeat should really be dubbed Eurotrash - because that's what it is: complete and utter drivel, but the difference is – the production knows it’s rubbish and revels in its own camp ridiculousness. Surprisingly though, it’s a real hoot! From the moment of entering the auditorium we were given a country to back with a flag and clackers then we were entertained by a front of house manager come warm up act!

A sparkly, spandex-clad, bad-taste extravaganza this is, but hugely enjoyable once you’ve accepted that that is all it is – who’d have known that it would be as infectiously addictive as it was!

This musical is one which I wouldn’t have expected to have been released for amateurs as I’d be surprised it would get much of a demand being one of those trashy West End shows designed to attract hen parties and such like.

Eurobeat is much shrewder than it lets on and is cleverly constructed to wring maximum fun for the audience. We’re in Sarajevo with our co-hosts (former national pole vault champion-turned-TV anchor-woman ‘Boyka’ and children's TV presenter ‘Sergei’), the 10 songs are wicked send-ups of national stereotypes and musical styles - and then there is the voting - the final winner is different every night because the audience decides the victor which certainly keeps both crew and cast on their toes! Sweep stake anyone!?

Get just a few of the details wrong or misjudge the tone, and Eurobeat could flop belly-up. But it is pretty pitch-perfect, from the Abba & Bjork clones representing Sweden & Iceland, to the suggestive British reality TV stars singing for the UK!

The spoof prerecorded and faithfully shaky satellite link-ups with the various countries giving the results was certainly a challenge well faced but I do feel this would have worked better being live, though I appreciate that would technically make the production even more difficult but would certainly have been impressive – any possible glitches would have likely added to the humour and authenticity anyway!

As for the genre – well it’s a musical pantomime, concert, game show operation! But then one could argue that Eurobeat isn't strictly a ‘show’ – it's an event, a competition!
On paper, the evening sounded far from promising though I was still very intrigued as I was certain that it was going to be something a little out of the ordinary – and I wasn’t wrong!
I'm still left with the question – “how does one spoof an event which appears to slide further and further into self parody?” But, I'm probably wrong to question or over think this production and should just accept it for what it is – ‘fun’: for the hell of it!

The occasional link-ups to the "green room" and the contestants' madcap backstage antics were super, it’s impossible to decipher if these were adlibs or scripted action, but either way they were another humorous layer to the production.

Hats off to Sale NOMADS for presenting a show which is outside of the box and a break away from the norm – the audience had a blast and I cannot deny that it was a production like no other I've seen this year (…or ever!)

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