Ultimately, the affection and energy that have been poured into this confection prove irresistible, the number of Sabbath T-shirt-wearing ballet newcomers in the audience heartening, the dancing marvellous throughout. Austin’s variations on Iron Man (and editing of the original Iron Man into 7/4) are particularly ingenious, and Lidberg’s work here is excellent. But it is in Act III that the original songs, new orchestrations and punchy steps coalesce best. It comes in three acts – the dancers discovering the joys of Sabbath the band members themselves their astonishing legacy – and opens grandly, with a stage swathed in searchlights, full of urgent movement and the original version of the protest song War Pigs instantly grabbing the attention.īacked with a huge, strikingly illuminated guitar-neck, Act II features delightful pre-recorded interviews with the band members (plus Sharon) and intimate choreography that knits curiously well with their frank recollections. Throw in a very able young choreographer – Pontus Lidberg, also marshalling others – and it was looking like the archetypal crazy plan that just might work.īut I refuse to be the sniffy Londoner who ruins the party for embrace the work’s (entirely apt) heavy-metal, at times even Spinal Tap-tinged kitchness, and there is a huge amount to enjoy. For another, there always was a hefty, symphonic quality to Black Sabbath’s music, and Christopher Austin – who has here masterminded the orchestration and reimagining of eight of their tracks – was also responsible for the swaggering White Stripes reworkings that helped make Wayne McGregor’s Chroma such a hit in 2006.Īlthough Ozzy Osbourne isn’t involved, Sabbath guitarist and lynchpin Tony Iommi is (and just you wait until the end.). For one thing, ballet and rock music have a richer history than many might think. And you know what? I could hardly blame them. Nor, by the sounds of it, had the first-night “home crowd” at the Birmingham Hippodrome on Wednesday, who at curtain-down gave a roar that threatened to reduce the theatre to rubble. All 16 nights of the new show’s tour, from Brum to Plymouth to London, have sold out – in the context of a new ballet, I have never known anything like it. ![]() The improbable juxtaposition of the beloved Brummie heavy-metal pioneers and the (supposedly) most ineffably refined art form in existence has clearly tempted thousands. Black Sabbath – The Ballet? Short of Daniel Day-Lewis appearing on Love Island, Paris Hilton directing Pirandello at the National Theatre, or Peppa Pig (somehow) starring in the Royal Opera’s latest Ring cycle, it’s hard to think how Birmingham Royal Ballet director Carlos Acosta could have come up with a more conspicuously attention-grabbing cultural proposition.
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