After a fantastic run at Edinburgh Fringe 2015, Gobsmacked! takes on London with an hour of mash ups, beatboxing, humour and what can only be described as technical singing brilliance. Made up of six singers and a world champion beatboxer- quirky show Gobsmacked! is sure to have you smiling and grooving all the way through.
The show doesn’t follow a linear structured story-line but instead conveys themes of young romance and friendship through different songs. There are no instruments throughout the piece, just six guys and two girls creating the arrangements with their own voices. The team of Gobsmacked! work together as an ensemble closely to be able to create slick harmonies. The team work required between them is evident in the performance as they listen to each other and themselves closely whilst remaining energetic.
One of the best parts of the show is when featured Beatboxing champion Ball-Zee is left alone on stage. Oozing stage presence; he creates an entire drum kit, a glass of water, a dog, a motorcycle, and much more just with his own voice and mouth. Ball-Zee also executes perfect comedic timing and my-self and the rest of the audience were left in bewilderment and amazement at how he could possibly create all these rhythms and beats alone.
As a group ensemble every member is featured at some point; all are able to show their impressive vocal registers that are one moment riffing to the heavens and the next shooting down, down, down. Featuring well known songs by The Killers, Adele, The Weekend and more – the atmosphere is fun and lively. The audience are constantly bopping along and cheering until we fall silent at a beautiful rendition of “I Will Wait” by Mumford and Sons.
The Udderbelly Venue is literally a huge purple tent in the shape of cow, the only downside of it is that you can occasionally hear the muffled sounds of the world outside of the auditorium in the quiet moments of the show, but it didn’t distract from the piece too much that you won’t enjoy it. Gobsmacked! opens with the cast emerging through the aisles of the audience, these aisles aren’t used again and I feel the show could benefit if they were used a few more times just to get the audience more involved into this A Capella world.
If you’re a fan of Pitch Perfect or Glee, or you’re looking for an entertaining evening in London then definitely go see Gobsmacked! As an audience we are left joyful and wanting more. The vocal talents of this group are truly astonishing and something not to be missed! You can catch them at the Udderbelly festival at London Southbank untill the 17th of July, and then they will be back at Edinburgh Fringe this August for what I’m sure will be a sell-out run.
Reviewed by Ellie Devonshire
