Firstly before my reviews gets too analytical and indepth, do your mum and yourself a favour and take your whole family to see this. Born out of the Adelaide Fringe Festival, this is an educational and amusing fusion of hip hop, drumming and acrobatics. It lends its self to the Sista She or Morganic approach to underground cultural representation at the heart of Australian society. Some may call it hip hop 101, some may call it ‘accessible’ while others still may just call it good theatre. From the opening notes of the old school hip hop beats that Sydney DJ Dizz 1 was casually dropping via Serato the audience seem to have been transported to a lounge chair warehouse experience. Enter Ben Walsh with an admirable plea for audience participation, and they compiled as they would continue to do for the rest of the performance.

It seems every good theatre performance needs introductions, but the fanfare can sometimes dominate the practical nature that it’s designed for: but Tom Tom Club suffered non of the above, and with smooth and well-groomed transitions, you’re suddenly in the middle of the performance and being amazed by the fusion of B-Boy moves with aerially acrobatics. And it’s both the strength and weakness of the show that it’s this fusion that the performance is based on. You have, in my opinion, Australia’s best beat boxer Tom Thum (in spite of the fact that Friday Night Download gave this honour to Joel Turner). Then add to this Ben Walsh, who’s one of Australia’s premier drummers and the show does wonders for highlighting his talent. Then you’ve got Dizz 1, who not only is a master scratch DJ but a premier drummer who has played with everyone from Nu Breed to Dexter. Then to top it off you have another four fit young men that are great acrobats, and also fantastic to watch.

So you might be asking, with that kind of mix what exactly could be wrong? Well it’s the fusion element that has me a little frustrated. It seems that each person takes the time to have a little solo performance, which is solid. Tom Thumb rocks some crazy beat boxing covers, he battles Dizz 1 and generally plays good host. Ben Walsh holds down the drums and gives an Australian version of Taiko drumming, while Dizz 1 drops some great electronics drums and real scratching flair. The four acrobats are simply amazing with brilliant displays of fitness and finesse, but it’s the lack of all round fusion that bothered me. All elements do no not combine enough for my liking and you’re left wanting them to be combined more, something that would bring the show to the peak. But than maybe Tom Tom Club has fulfilled the first role of theatre: always leave them wanting more.

But I repeat what I began this review with: it’s showing now at the Opera House, so do yourself a favour and go see this show as it contains people pushing the boundaries of each of their respective fields.

Check out a clip of the Tom Tom Club crew…