BRB, Black Sabbath – The Ballet review ★★★★★

With the benefit of hindsight, it seemed obvious. Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) and Black Sabbath are two of Birmingham’s biggest cultural exports. Bringing them together, improbable as the marriage of ballet and heavy metal might be, would be a natural step. But it took the visionary BRB director Carlos Acosta, with his determination to raise the profile of his company and attract new audiences, to join the dots.

Thus Black Sabbath – The Ballet was born.

It’s an ambitious production, involving one choreographer each for the ballet’s three acts, seven composers and orchestrators who worked on the band’s original music and repurposed it for the Royal Ballet Sinfonia under the supervision of Christopher Austin, who also conducted, plus one on-stage guitarist, Marc Hayward.

Marc Hayward and artists from Birmingham Royal Ballet, Black Sabbath – The Ballet. Photo: Johan Persson
The result is never less than spectacular; and when the dancers are asked fully to engage with the Sabbath beat it’s rousing; but not all of it works.

Act I, subtitled Heavy Metal Ballet, kicks off in goosebumps-raising manner. Sixteen dancers dressed in shinny black Lycra leotards take to the stage as Ozzy Osbourne’s voice is heard singing the first lines of War Pig. The stage is bathed in a dusky twilight – lighting design by K.J is varied and effective throughout.

Choreography is by the Cuban Raul Reinoso; to my mind, this was the most successful of the three acts. Reinoso used the language of classical ballet, but by linking it to the relentless beat of the songs – Iron Man, Solitude, Paranoid – made it funky, bat wings and all.

The dancers of BRB were in stupendous form and clearly relishing the challenge.

One outstanding sequence contains what must rate as the longest kiss in history, with dancers Javier Rojas and Yaoqian Shang performing a slow, acrobatic pas de deux with their lips glued together.

Javier Rojas and Yaoqian Shang in Black Sabbath – The Ballet. Birmingham Royal Ballet. Photo: Johan Persson
Act II – The Band by the Brazilian dance-maker Cassi Abranches, hinges on plentiful voiceovers by band members Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi, plus Ozzie’s wife Sharon, recalling the band’s humble beginnings, their excesses when fame hit – hotel rooms dismantled, plentiful drugs and alcohol – and their conviction that without Black Sabbath there wouldn't have been heavy metal.

The choreography’s accent is contemporary, the dancers in casual clothes, not a pointe shoe in sight, but their appearances are sporadic and a little aimless, the dance itself sagging under the power of the speaking voices.

Act III – Everybody is a Fan re-establishes the beat. It’s danced on a completely open stage in front of the legendary Sabbath demon atop an upturned silver car to reprises of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, War Pig and Paranoid. Pontus Lidberg’s impeccably academic choreography is intriguing, its intention unclear, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. At times the group dance looks like ballet class, but as we approach the finale the dancers are asked to shake it all out, and they do.

The final tableau, bringing together the entire cast, is certainly eye-filling.

Birmingham Royal Ballet - Black Sabbath – The Ballet. Photo: Johan Persson
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi put on a special appearance on opening night, showing that at 75 years old he’s still got what it takes when it comes to heavy metal guitar. He brought the evening to an electrifying end.