Eurobeat Pride of Europe

Hot off their last year’s best panto win, the Bunbury Players brought a touch of Eurovision to the Jubilee Centre in Mildenhall with their latest musical production, Eurobeat, the Pride of Europe. As someone who never misses a Eurovision, knowing that it was a parody, I was eager to see how far this group could take it.

Opening the show was our host for the evening Marlene Cabana, backed by the full company with the song, "The World is My Dance Floor." The choreo (credit to Jack Learoyd and team) was  effective and not too complicated for the non-dancers and sophisticated enough for those who could.

From the outset, a standout feature of this production were the costumes. The entire company donned European waistcoats with blue detail, setting the scene for a show that did not hold back on extravagant costumes worthy of Eurovision. From the burlesque-style dark costumes of Romania to the 1990s shell suits of Poland, the costume designer had clearly spent a long time dressing the cast. More impressive, however, were our host's costumes, which I will elaborate on later.

Throughout Act One, we were introduced to each of the countries, starting with Sweden. Emily Smith, dressed in a Kylie Minogue “Cant get you out of my head” style jumpsuit, performed a heartfelt song about flapping her arms, while battling with the backing dancers. I wasn’t quite sure why there was a battle but it is Eurovision so best not to question why!

Next up was Poland with a song that consisted of the repetition of, “it doesn’t matter what  you sing…as long as….” and featured three “very serious” singers (Nicole Drury, Kimberlie Lehrmann and Sarah Melia) dressed in shell suits, along with backing dancers holding sink plungers. This peculiar yet quintessentially Eurovision song almost won the night's contest but narrowly missed out. I think my vote swung it….sorry Poland!

Romania's entry, performed by Alisha Darkins, featured a song filled with "da da da" and "la la la," backed by bat-themed dancers, creating a dark and sultry ode to Dracula. This was a fun number and Alisha did well to lure the audience in to “Listen”.  

The UK entry followed courtesy of Alex Schosland and Cassandra Fisher, which seemed to be a parody about Brexit, though I felt that Cassandra should have had a European accent which would have helped the audience more fully appreciate the comedy. Despite this, it was a passionate performance by the pair. Unsurprisingly, the UK received no votes, a parody indeed!

Lithuania then delighted us with a song about how to dance, performed by Harrison Southgate and Jayne-Marie Hopper, who brought solid harmonies, giddy smiles and silly box steps, reminiscent of playful children – again very Eurovision!

We were then whisked off to the island home of Aphrodite, Greece, as Amy Cahill performed her song of love. Those familiar with Eurovision will know, ripping off an outer garment to a more revealing number underneath is always a crowd-pleaser. This was one of those moments, and Amy did a great job with her Greek rap and the Greek reference to some of the group’s visual stimuli.

Portugal's entry, performed by Jo, was perhaps the best lyrical song of the evening, shining a cynical light on the nature of Eurovision without glitz or glamour, providing one of the evening's best numbers with just “a guy playing a guitar” interspersed with a violin from Will Cahill forever trying to upstage everyone. Nice try will but Jo still stole this number. I dare say, that in the real Eurovision this style of song would probably win. Jo should consider getting this in for the UK entry 2026!

We then moved to Vatican City, where Katie Emmett delivered a passionate performance revealing she was not a good girl and had naughty traits. The nuns’ habits were ripped off to reveal glitzy numbers underneath. Katie was also very much a contender for the winning number!

France, courtesy of  Tracey Shaughnessy presented a song which roughly translated as "I Hate You All". The physical theatre as she dismissed the robotic male backing dancers was very funny. I particularly liked the ‘Morecombe and Wise’ move that Mandy MorrisH included here with silly skipping around the vocalist.

Finally, we came to Norway and the Viking song, my standout of the evening. Will Cahill revealed he was a boring accountant by day and a Viking by night (close to home for this reviewer), followed by Matt Darkins singing his ode to Viking Gods culminating in a complex trio with Hannah Strathern overlaying an operatic aria. What’s not to love with such a set up and in my mind the deserving winner of the evening.

Interspersed between the country songs, there were other cameo roles. I loved the little speech about Liechtenstein by Eleanor Vaughan and Matt Darkins. Matt's physical theatre with the oversized trousers, the comb over and toilet paper stuck to his shoe was hilarious. Boring Bjorn (Alex Schosland), the statistician, read from the audio queue screen, making it very funny as the inflection was deliberately not always correct, which worked well for this Nordic character. .

The biggest personality of the evening was our drag queen host, Marlene Cabana played by Ed Bye, who did an excellent job keeping the show moving forward with a character that blended the dry wit of Terry Wogan, the charisma of Graham Norton and the styling of Rue Paul. I was pleased to see the transformation in Ed’s vocal confidence and the number of costume changes were remarkable, each more extravagant and Eurovision-inspired than the last. Ed was definitely the Eurovision royalty of the evening that pieced this all together. Brava Marlene!

In the interval, we voted on our favourite country on ‘tablet computers’, with Act Two being relatively short and building up to the winner. Norway was the standout for me and rightly won the evening. I understand that over the course of the week other winners included France and Vatican City. All very deserving.

This production featured great ideas, including an audio cue card for the presenter’s dialogue, big projections with video montages introducing each country and simple lighting to create glitz and glamour. I thought the addition of some incidental music throughout the scene changes would have helped maintain the energy which tended to drop throughout and some variation in the lighting and scenery might have been an easy win to bring more Eurovision wow factor.

Altogether, a great evening of entertainment and as intentionally terrible some of the acts were, I appreciated them all in their own way – that’s Eurovision for you!. Well done to Mandy MorrisH (Director) and Will Cahill (Musical Director) for bringing all this together and I look forward to the murder mystery in Autumn! 

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