Showing @ Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 6 & Wed 7 Nov (on tour)

Representations like Glee and High School Musical have somewhat tarnished the combination of music and theatre with an over-camp and cheesy brush, but Kate Prince’s punchy and inventive display shatters this perception. Somewhere between West Side Story and Metropolis, this Hip Hopera is a riotous blend of performance arts including dance, comedy, music, mime and acrobatics.

Set in a dystopian land, tyrannical and chauvinistic Governor Okeke (Duwane Taylor) has banned books within the city and women aren’t treated much better. When two women are banished, they disguise themselves as men to work their way back into the fortress-like municipality.

Despite the name, ZooNation’s latest production is a more of a mélange of Hip Hop’s musical influences; Aretha Franklin-esque soul, Stevie Wonder style funk and Jackson 5 type poppy-beats to name a few. Ben Stones’ versatile set draws you in, shifting from decrepit city limits to cramped dormitory. The decaying industrial towers loom over the supple dancers as they mimic office work to marriage – like a beguiling hybrid of Charlie Chaplin and Diversity. Prince creatively balances her synchronised choreography with frequent comedic devices like the asinine Sudsy Partridge (Shaun Smith) character and fleeting nods to comedy icons (Groucho Marx).

With melodramatic characters, frequent musical numbers and audience participation it’s rather like a pre-panto, however, there is more to ZooNation’s rhythmical gyrations. Simmering under the exhausting routines, the slightly tired plot touches on the gender, financial and intelligence differences across society but rather like Mad Men, the extreme sexism allows the powerful female roles to blossom. Whatever the discipline, Prince’s frenetic recital chiefly exudes the fatuity of the “Us and Them” divisions thrown up by modern culture.

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