Song Contest - The Almost Eurovision Experience

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Fri 01 Apr 2016 - Sun 01 May 2016

Equipped with a flag, a badge and a new national identity, punters stream into the lively Alex Theatre in St Kilda to be part of – glitzy, cheesy, raucous and as close as most of us in Melbourne will ever get to the real thing.


Eleven nations compete for our support - all dressed to kill and keen to reinforce classic stereotypes – the Italians sexy and self-obsessed, the Brits punks and crude, the Polish naïve country folk – with the whole show overseen by an over-powering matron Bettina Bitjakokov, played by Bev Killick who comperes the show, supposedly from the Belarus capital city, Minsk.


An excellent small group of singers and dancers swapped roles between acts, with just enough time between songs to exchange the Swedish fantasy feathers for the Russian folk dress. All the songs were written for the show and cover the full range of Eurovision extremes: there were enough wind-machine-blown hairdos, key changes and bearded lady-boys to ensure drinking game inebriation – and then some.


And the performances didn't end on the stage: the audience waved their flags, cheered and frantically clapped their plastic hands to cheer their favoured performers. And – crucially – voted, courtesy of the Song Contest app.


Directed by our very own Glynn Nicholas with songs by Daniel & Gideon Frankel from Dare Music and Jason Coleman in charge of the dance routines, it's high quality entertainment that makes you laugh, cheer like a REAL Eurovision audience and exit the stage into the warm evening of a Fitzroy St autumn night, somewhat dazed but absurdly cheerful.

Don't miss it. The season runs till May 1.

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#may
!date 01/04/2016 -- 01/05/2016
%wnmelbourne