Some Like It Hip Hop – review

Peacock theatre, London

When Into the Hoods opened at the Novello theatre in 2008, it was the West End's first hip-hop show and it would mark the evolution of British hip-hop from a street form into a fully realised theatrical language. The piece was choreographed and directed by Kate Prince, and last Tuesday she launched her new show, Some Like It Hip Hop. Like its predecessor it unites a smart and appealing storyline with truly fabulous dancing. The line-up is led by Tommy Franzén and Lizzie Gough from BBC1's So You Think You Can Dance, and strength in depth is provided by Teneisha Bonner, Duwane Taylor and other luminaries of the UK hip-hop scene.

The story tells of a city whose governor (Taylor), unbalanced by the loss of his wife, has locked the community into a repressive regime where books are banned, women confined to menial tasks and offenders banished to the chill desolation outside the city. The first to suffer this fate is the free-spirited Sudsy, danced by Shaun Smith, and he's swiftly followed by Kerri (Bonner) and Jo-Jo (Gough). The only way back into the city is via one of the work details recruited from the ranks of the rejects, but as only men are required, Kerri and Jo-Jo have to drag up in wigs, moustaches and suits.

Cue much confusion and romantic cross-purpose. Jo-Jo falls for Simeon (Franzén), who is also recruited for the work party but cannot see beyond her male get-up, and Kerri finds herself simultaneously favoured as an up-and-coming young chap by the governor and lustily pursued by Oprah (Natasha Gooden), his long-lost daughter. Simeon, meanwhile, is persuaded into falling for Jo-Jo in the launderette, where she can safely be her female self, and both she and Kerri are unmasked as women in a classic reveal, unleashing first chaos and then a suitably redemptive conclusion.

Dance-wise, there's not a weak moment. Frantzén is supremely good, combining an effortless technique with highly sophisticated musical phrasing. In his hands, DJ Walde and Josh Cohen's rapid-fire score becomes infinitely pliant: something to have fun with and bend to his own idiosyncratic ends. In owlish specs and nerdy sweater, Franzén is an unlikely romantic lead but he works the look with great wit, just as Gough does with her hornrims and Sandra Dee bangs.

Taylor, meanwhile, is a magisterial governor, expressing his fractured psyche though quiveringly tense locking and popping routines. But perhaps the most finely shaded performance is Smith's. As the hapless, sweet-natured Sudsy he combines cutting-edge moves with a doleful anxiety to please which recalls Norman Wisdom and the greats of music-hall clowning.

The piece looks good. Ben Stones's steampunk designs give a grim, dystopian feel, and Prince's choreography hits the mark every time. Not only as display but as a vehicle for emotion. There's a duet for Bonner and Gooden which is just sensual enough to give their relationship an ambiguous edge, and in a later trio for Smith, Gough and Bonner, Prince's filmic montage of angled limbs and liquid upper-body moves is perfectly expressive of their individual dilemmas.

Inevitably there are flaws. The piece opens with an exposition by a narrator which is rendered near inaudible by poor amplification. The first half seems at once over-plotted and over-simplistic: there are, for example, no unsympathetic female characters, and the overbearing masculine behaviour could be much more subtly drawn. There are structural problems raised by the Oprah subplot, which is central to the resolution but encountered comparatively late in the piece, and in consequence has a tacked-on feel.

And given the show's references to Billy Wilder's 1959 film Some Like It Hot, which itself references Shakespearean comedy, we are led to expect a more comprehensive romantic pairing-off than is delivered. Jo-Jo and Simeon are an established item some time before the end, and Kerri, in an echo of Twelfth Night's Viola and Duke Orsino, appears destined for the governor, although this is not especially clearly signalled. Oprah, Sudsy and the others, meanwhile, are left out on a limb, love-wise.

But these are early days. Into the Hoods continued to evolve long after its 2006 debut in this theatre, and Some Like It Hip Hop is surely destined for the same smash-hit status.

• This article was amended on 2 November 2011 to make it clear that the score of Some Like It Hip Hop is co-written by DJ Walde and Josh Cohen.

Contributor

Luke Jennings

The GuardianTramp

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