Black Sabbath – The Ballet, Edinburgh review: 'too many cooks'

Black Sabbath – The Ballet, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh ★★★

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s love letter to Black Sabbath gets a lot of things right. In particular, and perhaps most importantly in this cash-strapped age, it has attracted countless newcomers to ballet. Musically, whether you’re a fan of the infamous heavy metal band or not, the cherry-picked classics, new orchestrations and original compositions create an arresting blend of exhilaration and poignancy. Equally, this is not a company short of technical talent, and aside from some slightly poor unison in the first act, the dancers are a bundle of energetic grace.

So why isn’t this unique offering the unmitigated triumph it should be? Or at least, not for those with a love of ballet?

While there is much to enjoy here, there’s a sense that too many cooks have over-seasoned the broth. As well as overall director Carlos Acosta, the movement has been created by three different choreographers, rendering it hard for a through-line to emerge. So while the show is swimming in interesting flavours, they feel grabbed from the cupboard rather than shaped steadily from a recipe.

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Each of the three acts (focussing on heavy metal, the band itself, and finally the fans) delivers its own crowd-pleasing moment. Act one climaxes with athletic solos that show what this company is truly capable of; the choreography in act two astutely echoes fractures and friendships within the band; while the beautifully lit closing act perfectly illustrates the solidarity of Sabbath fans around the world. Throughout, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia delivers songs such as War Pigs, Paranoid, Laguna Sunrise and more with the attack and sensitivity they demand.

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The sum, then, isn’t necessarily as strong as its parts, and non-Sabbath fans may struggle to feel anything below surface level, but you certainly won’t go hungry.

Until 1 November

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