Features
If you can’t Beat ’em...
Can you really parody Eurovision? Australian-inspired
Eurobeat is heading to a theatre near you in July and
then to the West End.
Viv Hardwick talks to host Mel
Giedroyc about the show which the UK can actually win.
EUROBEAT is the one theatre show
where the audience are postively
encouraged to use their mobile
phones. In fact the spoof version
of the Eurovision Song Contest,
the TV show the UK now loves to
hate, can't work without them. On the eve of
the TV version returning to our screens on
Saturday, a chat with Eurobeat host Mel
Giedroyc seems quite timely. She's an
acknowledged Eurovision expert, has acted as
a judge for Making Your Mind Up (the
programme which chose our ignominious
entry by Scooch last year), has Eastern
European roots and (whisper this quietly) has
recently experienced a UK victory in the stage
version of Eurovision.
"We encourage people to vote using their
mobile phones at the interval, although we do
ask them to put them on silent mode. A
computer counts up the votes and we have all
the fun of the voting in the second half,"
explains Giedroyc, who will host the
Newcastle leg of Eurobeat's tour in July with
Les Dennis, as the pair unleash the hilarity of
the voting process.
UK hurt about which countries will vote for
our song now stretches back to 1968 and Cliff
Richard's song of Congratulations being
pushed into second place by Spain, following
vote-rigging arranged by Spanish dictator
General Franco, a fact recently revealed by
Spanish journalists. The sad fact is that
Saturday's UK song by Andy Abraham is
unlikely to finish anywhere near the runnerup
spot. Our unpopularity in Europe since
1997 has seen any points awarded above the
infamous "nul" level considered a bonus. "I do
love the Eurovision Song Contest but we're
not likely to do very well until we get out of
Iraq. The trouble is that the Eastern
Europeans take it very seriously, it's a matter
of national pride which is why they end up
voting for each other," Giedroyc says. "The
voting is one of the best parts because you
always get a national celebrity, who we don't
know in the UK but is really famous in their
own country, and they try and put in gags and
expand their role when all they have to do is
announce the voting figures. It's wonderful."
Eurobeat manufactures the national fervour
in the theatre by handing out flags and
favours to the audience and asking them to
support one of ten songs which contain all the
crazy antics so often associated with a bid to
win Eurovision.
"This wouldn't work if our songs and
singers weren't any good. They also reflect the
bizarre performances we've got used to seeing
on Eurovision. The show also appeals to all
ages," Giedroyc says of Eurobeat which was a
huge hit at last year's Edinburgh Festival. The
tour has blossomed slowly, more through
world of mouth than anything else, and has
just earned an invitation to run in the West
End. That doesn't mean that Eurobeat has
managed to avoid courting controversy.
"We are in Belfast at the moment and it was
decided to take the Union Jack and the Irish
flags up to Stormont as part of the publicity
for the show. The next thing we know, the
show was being accused of breaking the law
by displaying these flags and we ended up on
the front pages of four newspapers for all the
wrong reasons. So Eurobeat can by as
controversial as Eurovision," she says. As for
voting, when the show ran in Edinburgh, the
Estonia or Russian songs won nearly every
night with the tour being more wide open.
"I can tell you that the UK entry did manage
a victory... it was in Stoke two weeks ago. The
show is a bit of party. People are getting up at
the end, they're dressing up and it's just fab.
It's all-comers welcome. It really is. In a sense
this is a type of panto performance. This isn't
just a trip to the theatre. This isn't a niche
camp show."
The biggest surprise about Eurobeat is that
the project has come out of Australia. "It's a
massive cult thing in Australia which I didn't
realise until I got involved with this. Craig
Christie and Andrew Patterson, who wrote the
show, and Glyn Nicholas who has brought it
over from Australia at first seemed ridiculous,
but they've got bloody good sense of humour
in Oz and this started out as a small show
about ten years ago. Then it toured around Oz
and the plan was always to break into the UK
market which they're doing," she says.
Giedroyc, made famous through appearing
on TV and touring with Sue Perkins as well as
writing for French and Saunders, has just
finished filming a sketch series for the BBC.
"It's due to go out in June and it was good fun
to do... but I don't know the title, which is a bit
mad, because it always just had a working
title. I'm on Eurobeat until the autumn
and we'll take it into the West End (the
Novello Theatre) at the beginning of
September which we've just heard
about."
* Eurobeat - Almost Eurovision
(Sarajevo), Newcastle Theatre
Royal, July 7-12. Box Office:
08448-11-21-21 or
www.theatreroyal.co.uk
10:57am Thursday 22nd May 2008
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