Eurobeat - Pride of Europe

 

There was a time when winning the Eurovision Song Contest was regarded as a fairly serious matter; or so it seemed. The UK made several attempts before eventually finding a winner in the barefoot Sandie Shaw.  Recently, however, the contest seems to have become a source of amusement, aided by remarks from some BBC commentators, some outrageous costumes and some rather unusual songs. Entries from some countries have us searching for an atlas to determine their whereabouts and an entry from the Southern hemisphere to what we thought was purely a European matter is also a puzzle. Thankfully, an approach from across the Atlantic does not seem to be on the agenda of a certain U.S. President. On a positive note, the contest did introduce us to ABBA and was even staged in North Yorkshire in 1982.

This musical provides further amusement at the expense of the contest. By some sort of accident rather than a previous win, which is the usual pre-requisite, it’s the turn of Liechtenstein to host the event. Accordingly, we find ourselves in its capital, Vaduz, where its cultural ambassadors, Fanny Feuberger and Kevin Kupferblum (Joy Warner and Simon Kelly) welcomed us to their country and introduced us to the Master of Protocols, Bjorn Bjornson who explained rules and voting procedure in his own amusing style. Zander Fick did well to maintain his deadpan expression throughout the evening, including the interval.

We were treated to entries from ten European countries and introducing them all was our hostess,   Marlene Cabana, a role in which Annabel van Griethuysen excelled. Her introductions were amusing, laced with a degree of innuendo, whilst her own songs at the start and finish were delivered with great confidence and expertise.  Most of all we could not help but be impressed by her vast wardrobe, a different gown for each of the entries and a rather outrageous costume for her final song.

Astrid Lungstomberg (Emma Swainston) representing Sweden opened the contest with her song “Semaphore of love”, accompanied by a number of sailors who were indeed illustrating her message by careful placement of arms and flags.   A collection of folk represented Poland with a song “It doesn’t matter”, whilst a mystic Emily Rockliff as Earnestasia reminded us that Romania had Transylvania as one of its regions. It fell to Nigel and Nadine to represent the United Kingdom with a song about an apparent breakdown in marital relationships reminiscent of the works of Victoria Wood. Pascha Turnbull and  Stephen Wilson made such a good job of this that we might wish that this greatly missed writer had been invited to do the job for the real thing. Further amusement came from the Lithuanian entry “This is how I dance” in which a couple known as Idomus (Megan Taafe and Pierre-Alain van Griethuysen) proved that it is not always necessary for music to be accompanied by excessive movement. By way of contrast,     Chloe Chapman had choreographed her own number “Oh, Aphrodite”, as her character Persephone, Queen of the underworld in Greek mythology, represented that nation.  Cain Branton as Mateus Villela provided the Portuguese entry “Guy with a guitar”, a title which accurately described his appearance but any hope that he might go on to play that instrument or one of the others subsequently brought on stage was realised only in the final chord. Even the Vatican City was represented as Mother Morag and the Sisters of Perpetual Harmony gave a lively rendition of their song “Good Girl” before Estelle LaCroix offered the French entry “Je vous deteste tous” in which Amy Greene, sporting a beret and accompanied by sellers of assorted French produce, clearly expressed her dislike of all concerned, including her audience. The Norwegian entry introduced us to the duo Hammer of Thor with a song entitled “The Vikings”; Matt Tapp and Daniel Wood made a formidable pair.      

Through the wonders of modern technology (mobile phones) we cast our votes during the interval and, as is no doubt the case as you watch the contest itself each May, you will be anxious to learn the result. Appropriately for York with its Viking history, the two Scandinavian entries were placed second and third but the winner was Greece and so it fell to Chloe Chapman to provide a second rendition of her winning entry before the full company reminded us that “The world is your dance floor”, a reprise of the opening number. This is a good company show providing so many opportunities for members to undertake cameo roles, whilst scenery requirements are minimal. Music, as was the case here, can be on backing tracks whilst the greatest demands are probably on the wardrobe department for costumes suitable to reflect different songs and, of course, those for the hostess. I understand that performances so far have seen several winners and it will be interesting to discover the overall winner after the run of ten performances.

         

                                   

                 

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