A clanger of a show

10 April 2012

Where are those Trades Descriptions people when you need them? Life is Rhythm is billed as an "original and fresh" tap and percussion show that is so "full of energy" it makes the audience "want to get up and dance".

The programme has pictures of vigorous Hispanic types beating drums and leaping about, chests bare and eyes moody, plus promises of an "intensity and passion" that will "burn the stage".

If there's any burning to be done it should be the theatre's management, in public and at the stake, because Life is Rhythm is a clanger of a show. The 90-minute production is aiming to be a sort of

Catalan-cum-African Tap Dogs, the Ozzie knockabout where likely lads tap, rap and josh their way through manly dance routines. Given the Dogs' success, it's no surprise that people are keen to replicate the formula. Sadly, Life is Rhythm doesn't come close.

Instead, it looks thin, amateurish and hastily put together. The routines are flat and the delivery weak. The performers have basic tapping skills, but their movements are stiff and showmanship slight. Some of the jokes are truly hopeless, and the face pulling more Les Dawson than Hispanic hunk. None of them really connect with the audience, let alone display flair or panache or theatrical allure, although the musicians are less bad at this than the dancers. Also, some of the team look old and crumpled. Not that that's automatically a bad thing, as good flamenco dancers are often far from the first flush. It's just that the Rhythm oldies have neither the artistry nor the sophistication that maturity bestows. And as for the audienceparticipationsequence, this can be watched only from behind your seat.

If all that weren't bad enough, the show feels culturally stateless, a creature without ethnic identity. One of the show's founders, Toni Espanol lived in West Africa, but few of its fearsome rhythms colour the production.

Nor is it especially Catalan, which you'd expect, given that's where the team is based. Ah-ha, I hear you say, but Tap Dogs is only faintly Australian, and that is true. The problem is that Life is Rhythm isn't faintly anywhere.

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