Eurobeat Tickets

Details of Eurobeat and the Ticket Luck value

Eurobeat
It is the annual song contest live on stage that parodies the Eurovision Song Contest. Written by Craig Christie and Andrew Patterson, an acclaimed duo who have collaborated on three previous shows, this riotous celebration of Eurovision is the world's first interactive musical.

It is presented by Sir Terry Wogan who has been a highly popular front-man for the BBC's Children in Need for the past dozen years. It was written by Craig Christie and Andrew Patterson after Craig, a British passport holder, was denied the chance to write an entry for the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest because he happened to live in Australia.

Instead, he decided to go one better and write a musical about the competition and Eurobeat was born. It has since been a massive hit. Just last year it got eleven million viewers in the UK.

The world of Eurobeat is all about music, tight spandex, tight colored jeans, comedy mispronunciation, tricky presenting, and voting. The crowd is whipped up into a frenzy of delight. The boy band, Abba-esque pop group and folk entry are all here, alongside a UK entry, the unmistakably Irish-sounding Irish entry and an Iceland performer.

10 countries compete against each other. armed with flags, badges and clackers that produce a sound so deafening that they almost (some might say mercifully) drown out the performers, each member of the audience is allocated one of 10 competing countries to represent.

Once they have heard all of the entries, they are then invited to vote for their favorite via text message. That interactive element means every show has a different winner which drives at the heart of Eurovision.

There is fierce competition between the nations; as in the real Eurovision, audience members cannot vote for their own countries, but there is nothing to stop them bribing others to do so. The contest on this UK tour prior to its West End premiere has since wowed audiences and critics in Australia. At the 2007 Edinburgh Festival it scooped the inaugural MTM Best Musical Award.

In September 2008 Eurobeat opened in London`s West End. The current UK touring version, set in Sarajevo, features everything the real Eurovision is known for: low end local celebrities making awful jokes (this time with lots of double entendre) and stereotyped nationalities attempting to out-flare and out-pop each other.

The shows running time is approximately 2 hours 30 minutes, including one interval. While Mel Giedroyc plays former pole-vaulter Boyka, giving a pouting, preening, show-stealing performance, Les Dennis plays Sergei, a childrens TV presenter with a wig.

The 10 competing countries included Italy, Poland, Iceland, United Kingdom, Hungary, Russia, Ireland, Greece, and Germany, Sweden. Each of the countries taking part is openly mocked for its stereotypical attributes, but with tongues placed firmly in cheeks.

There are, of course, also the hilarious mispronunciations of words by the foreign hosts, questionable lyrics with a not so subtle subtext and costumes. Some of them (Greece, Italy, Ireland, Russia) are surprisingly catchy and worthy of being on many an iPod and go beyond their novelty setting.

Others exist for the sake of being intentionally bad and perhaps lack tunefulness as a result, but still work in the context of the show. Many of those viewers watch the Eurovision Song Contest purely to hear Terry's commentary. He is famed throughout the world for his irreverent, micky-taking remarks.

Funnier than the real thing was the consensus of most critics, hilariously camp and exuberantly enjoyable show. 2008 Eurobeat producers are Glynn Nicholas Group. Driven by founder Glynn Nicholas the company is an exceptional production house that creates, produces, presents, manages and distributes Australian theatre and entertainment for the global market.

Their past productions include Kissing Frogs, National Security & the Art of Taxidermy, Certified (formerly Certified Male), Oh Come all ye Stressful, Crossing the Line, Shoosh and The Plumbers Opera.

2009 productions are likely to include tour of Ireland & Scandinavia. The one downside to this production is the continuing trend to eliminate live music.

On the other hand, the Eurovision contest itself has been free of a live orchestra for years, and touring prices reflect the lower expenses. All said one thing is certain: its hard to care when youre laughing so hard.