The crowd is less night at the opera, more weekend in Whitby. Like Old Demdike and her witches at a black mass, goths, steampunks, and the leather-and-lace faithful have gathered for the London premiere tour ‘Black Sabbath - The Ballet’.
It’s not the only thing here that’s wildly different from your average dance production. Comedian Stewart Lee has written the intro to the programme; the velvet curtain is a shimmering shade of purple; and if it wasn’t already obvious, the Birmingham Royal Ballet will be dancing to the heady sounds of heavy metal. Tchaikovsky, you are excused for the evening.
Under the direction of Carlos Acosta – and with the Satanic blessing of the band – ‘Black Sabbath - The Ballet’ is a tribute to the founding fathers of hard rock. But with well over 50 years of history under their studded belts, how best to tell the band’s story, and, just as importantly, how best to avoid any moments of ‘We Will Rock You’-style cringe? Instead of a chronological biography or a brand new narrative set to the band’s distinctive sound, we get a little of both.
The first act sees symphonic renderings of Sabbath’s greatest hits; ‘War Pigs’, ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Paranoid’, as the company – all dressed in black, of course – twist and turn around a live guitarist, who does some messianic posing against a stark backdrop of lightboxes etched with guitar pedals, the band’s bouffants, and a natty crucifix. As powerful as it is to have a musician on stage rather than in the orchestra pit, it proves a distraction from the dancers, whose skillful interpretation of Sabbath’s music is best when it’s less literal – moments of moshing, headbanging and crowdsurfing verge on the naff, while the glistening pirouettes and heroic leaps across the stage are simply glorious.
The second act hits harder, giving snapshots of the band’s story via their disembodied voices describing pivotal moments, including guitarist Tony Iommi’s factory accident, which led to him losing the tips of two of his fingers. Rather than crassly acting out the incident, a dancer moves gracefully to Iommi’s voice over folksy instrumental Orchid, while above him a huge James Turrell-style light piece representing the six strings of a guitar looms prophetically. Ozzy Osbourne’s voice comes next – and the audience chuckles along to his musings on drugs and chaos – as dancers, now in cutoff (surely stretch) denim, pivot through the incendiary ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ riff.
A final act – which features a giant silver demon riding an upturned car – focuses on the fans, with the songs from 1970’s ‘Paranoid’ album reappearing, alongside 1972’s mystical ‘Laguna Sunrise’. An encore of sorts, real heads might be keen to hear more Sabbath songs, but then it’s over to the real Tony Iommi to coolly stride onstage and thrash out the ‘Paranoid’ riff. The crowd, naturally, loses their collective shit.
Black Sabbath might not have had a thing for innovation – inventing heavy metal aside – but ‘Black Sabbath - The Ballet’ proves they’re willing to dabble every now and then. It could go harder, it could go deeper, it’s a bit cheesy at times – but this improbable experiment is simply a lot of fun.
