REVIEW | The Shuffle Show
COMEDY
The Shuffle Show - A Playlist of Playlists ★★★★½
Teatro, Perth Cultural Centre | Review by Kent Acott
One thousand songs in an hour is an ambitious claim … ambitious, implausible and, as it turned out, unachieveable.
But it didn't matter. Instead, we got a cleverly structured hour of humour, wit, silliness, energy and talent that provided a remarkable musical insight into the often-overlooked complexities of the iPhone playlist.
Set under the watchful eye of a Steve Jobs portrait, the show uses mega-company Apple's structured customer service regime as the basis to its evaluation of the playlist phenomenon.
Comedy duo Elena Gabrielle and Grant Buse launch into a series of musical compilations that cover everything from Beyoncé to Streisand and Eminem to Johnny Farnham.
It begins with the "climate change" playlist, continues with a rock-and-rap collection, jumps to an embarrassed audience member's "foreplay" list and then pays homage to the rounded woman with a "big butt" playlist.
All this is done to the sole accompaniment of Buse's guitar playing, which is mesmerising in itself. He is clearly a skilled musician and he combines this with an appealing, bluesy voice and unruffled demeanour to build an engaging and amusing on-stage presence.
His guitar is set aside for Gabrielle's "diva" compilation and, with a beating soundtrack, she launches into a show-stopping musical parody.
The playlist choices are diverse and their mixing is flawless. It is toe-tapping and fun.
But if the song medleys don't win you over, the dance medley will. It is extraordinary.
Now in workout gear, Gabrielle and Buses find genuine humour in the iconic dance moves of the last 30 years - everything is mashed together, from the Village People's YMCA, to Rocky Horror's Time Warp, the Wiggles' Mashed Potato and Beyonce's Single Ladies.
It culminates in Rhianna's Take a Bow, an appropriate ending that prompts the "standing ovation" that the Shuffle Show deserved and received.
The Shuffle Show continues until January 29 at Teatro 1 in the Perth Cultural Centre. The show starts at 11pm.
