If you didn’t manage to get a ticket for Mad Hatter’s Tea Party at the Royal Opera House because there were no tickets left or if you missed the live stream on the 18th December 2014 then this is your chance. It can now be viewed on BBC iPlayer until 22nd January.
These are photos are taken by photographer Jane Hobson from our photo call on the 19th September 2012. We opened Some Like It Hip Hop at the Peacock Theatre on 20th September 2012 for our second season there. The show has been revamped and the audience response had been absolutely incredible so far.
To view Jane’s photos of Some Like It Hip Hop click on the link below.
Great dance theatre doesn’t come about by accident. It’s born of constant experiment, reassessment and refinement. Some Like It Hip Hop was written, choreographed and directed by Kate Prince as a follow-up to her phenomenally successful Into the Hoods, which opened in the West End in 2008. The new show is Prince’s take on Billy Wilder’s 1959 film comedy Some Like It Hot, and tells the story of Jo-Jo (Lizzie Gough) and Kerri (Teneisha Bonner), who drag up as men to get work in a dystopian city in which books are banned and women permitted only the most menial of jobs.
Eleven months later Prince has got it dead right. The show works at every level, as satire, parable and romcom, and from the first appearance of Ross Green’s wry narrator unfolds with luxurious, rapid-fire precision. Gough, with her hornrims and blonde bangs, projects an eager, goofball charm, and Bonner, who can lay serious claim to the title of hip-hop dance’s hottest female star, is all slinky ripple. Once inside the city and dressed as men â hilariously unlikely men, it has to be said â the pair acquire a pseudo-masculine swagger that ruthlessly sends up the unreconstructed crotch-scratching, cigar-chomping machismo they encounter.
In numbers such as It’s a Man’s World and The Rules of Seduction it becomes clear that part of Prince’s intention is to use humour to send up some of the negative attitudes still prevalent in the hip-hop world. As she says, she’s “strongly against misogynistic lyrics, homophobia, violence and materialism”. So the pleasures of book-learning are extolled, the oppressive get their comeuppance and sexism and arrogance get a firm boot in the seat of the pants. A comically ambiguous scene in which Natasha Gooden’s Oprah flirtatiously pursues Kerri in her male guise reminds us of the debt owed by Wilder’s film to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Itâs hard to imagine a shape or movement of the human body that did not cycle at top speed through the well-toned physiques of the ultra-enthusiastic cast of ZoonationâsSome Like It Hip Hop at Tuesday nightâs performance. The show is now in revival at the Peacock Theatre after a successful run last year. On one level itâs a rather puzzling creation; a sort of amalgamation of a musical fable and a contemporary version of a dance revue, but it basically boils down to an excuse for a bunch of prodigiously talented young dancers to show off their breakinâ, b-boyinâ, street, pop music video, acrobatic ambitions. And this they do with enough energy to power a small city for at least a week.
Some Like It Hip Hop is definitely a dance extravaganza first and a book musical second. Although many of the songs are real toe-tappers, they sound suspiciously similar to the pop chart toppers of recent years, and the story, well, I kept getting confused. The story purports to be a cross between Some Like It Hot, the Marilyn Monroe classic directed by Billy Wilder, and Shakespeareâs Twelfth Night, but despite some undercover cross dressing, thematically I didnât see all that much of either. It seems that the governor of a kind of post-industrial fairy tale city got grumpy one day and in a move of seriously totalitarian megalomania extinguished the sun, burned all the books and banished all the women in his jurisdiction to either exile or humiliating subservience to the men folk.
The evil consequences of this were narrated by an everyman figure (Ross Green), and expressed through angrily executed, snappy breakdance moves and a sort of swiftly angular sign language reminiscent of voguing. But underdogs abound in this cartoon dystopia and we are soon introduced to a gaggle of plucky protagonists who both defy and perpetuate stereotypes as they boldly protest the regime and dance their way into getting kicked out of the city, dance their way back in again, and then do it again. It seems that to like books and be smart you must wear a cardigan and thick-rimmed glasses, and as a girl you might be plenty clever and gutsy but still go all dumb and gooey when a good looking fella comes along. Serious social commentary this is not.
But in an interview in the programme, Zoonation leader and creator of Some Like It Hip Hop, Kate Prince says that entertaining her audience is her number one priority, and this she surely did with the help of her exuberant proteges. The individual and group numbers were so dense with lightning fast movement that the dancers would have seemed a blur had they not been nailing right on the head and with exacting precision, every shape and tricky combination. The whole group is remarkable for this, but Tommy Franzen of So You Think You Can Dance fame, is such a magnetic performer that he nearly stole the show right out from underneath the rest of the crew. Even in the big group numbers he shone as though he was veritably lit up from within, making it almost impossible to watch anyone else. I donât know what he has for breakfast but we should all be on it.
There seemed no other option but to stand up during the protracted and bubbly curtain call, and the encores just kept coming as audience members danced out into the aisles and the cast all aptly sang the phrase âDonât let me hear you say you canât dance!â on joyful repeat. In fact not dancing was practically impossible, so infectious was their energy. I found myself grinning and bouncing, the ten-year-old friend I was with was gleefully drumming the air with invisible drumsticks, and both of us danced down the aisle and out into the street. In short, donât go to Some Like It Hip Hop for the story or a critique of social injustice; youâll be disappointed. But the feel-good factor and the super fly dancing, are well worth the price of admission.
THE TELEGRAPH – SEVEN MAGAZINE
 5 stars by Louise Levene
Some Like It Hip Hop at the Peacock Theatre, Sadler’s Wells Photo: Simon Prince
Some Like it Hip Hop is a new cross-dressed âdansicalâ from ZooNation (the company behind Into the Hoods), and a preview run in the Midlands meant that this terrific musical comedy hit the West End in fine shape.
Despite the catchy title, Some Like it Hip Hop is not a danced version of the 1959 movie, although Billy Wilderâs central theme â changing sex to find work â is maintained. Kate Princeâs story is set in a brutish, bookless men-only world (an earnest nod here to the misogyny found in hip hop and rap music) so that our two heroines (Teneisha Bonner and Lizzie Gough) must don suits, moustaches and blokey mannerisms before anyone will take them seriously.
If the Blood Brothers-style running commentary (delivered by Tachia Newall) lacks the textual sophistication of Rennie Harrisâs Rome and Jewels, this is more than made up for by superb musical direction. DJ Walde and Josh Cohenâs smooth mix of tape and live voice includes several show-stopping original songs, delivered with soul by Elliotte Williams-NâDure and Sheree Dubois.
Ben Stoneâs modular set makes for seamless transformations, while Johanna Townâs virtuoso lighting guides us around the multi-level stage so that not a trick is missed. The penultimate number, Wilson Atieâs Light it Up, earned the usual oohs and aahs for the choreographic firework display, with Tommy Franzen looking like Jell-O on springs.
THE TIMES
4 stars by Debra Craine
Tommy Franzen busts some moves in Some Like It Hip Hop (Marilyn Kingwill)
When ZooNation unveiled Into the Hoods six years ago no one could have predicted how successful its hip-hop reworking of a Sondheim musical would become. With Some Like It Hip Hop, a reworking of an iconic film, itâs different. We know this oneâs a winner.
The story, told in charming rhymes and lyrics, is a simple parable. The Governor, grieving for his dead wife, is consumed by darkness and takes it out on the inhabitants of his city. He captures the Sun and hides it in a box, thus plunging the city into perpetual gloom, while he bans books and institutionalises the subservience of the female sex. Two brave women (in a neat reversal of Some Like It Hotâs gender casting) decide that the only way they will make it in this world is to pretend to be men. Much hilarity and romantic confusion follow. Finally come revolution and enlightenment. Harmony is restored, families are reunited, books are back and love finds a way. Itâs zany and zippy, hilarious and heartwarming.
Classic twist ⊠Some Like It Hip Hop. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
If there was any doubt that hip-hop had finally grown out of the street and into the theatre, then Kate Prince‘s new production dispels it. Technically, Some Like It Hip Hop may be a little rough around the edges, but it has all the pace, ambition and talent of a West End show.
New stories for dance theatre are hard to find, especially ones suitable for a family audience. Prince, however, has gone to the best. Her plot is a twist on the classic Billy Wilder movie, Some Like It Hot, but it also draws on Shakespearean comedy for its themes of mistaken identity, gender disguise, lost daughters, and rulers in crisis.
Deploying a witty, insouciant mix of rhyming couplets and rap, Tachia Newall as Narrator tells the story of a Governor whose grief at the death of his wife brings dark days to his subjects: books are banned, work is regimented and women consigned to domestic slavery. Two rebellious young women disguise themselves as men (the Wilder movie in reverse), and much of the comedy arises from their glee in sending up their male masters, strutting in suits and â with a pointed dig at hip-hop machismo â clutching narcissistically at their crotches.
Other rebels join the cause, including the bookworm and all-round softie Simeon Sun, a role that allows Tommy Franzen to show off his stellar abilities as dancer and actor, layering dapper jazz rhythms and comic clowning into the hip-hop mix. Franzen is credited with some of the choreography, which impressively pushes hip-hop to a variety of narrative purposes: sharp, robotic routines for the oppressed workers, slow, mournful moves for the citizens-in-exile, and a mother of all dance battles when the rebels turn on their masters using an onslaught of headspins, bodyflips and vaulting high-kicks.
The choreographic range is reflected in the music: a layering of recorded sound and some terrific live singing that embraces R&B, beatboxing, soul and old-fashioned schmaltz. It’s a real shame that the sound system fails the cast in places, with some of the vocals barely audible over ramped-up electronic beats. The production’s other weakness is its length: there’s a good 15 minutes of redundant material. But this is still a belter of a show, performed by a cast whose vivid, gutsy variety of shape, size, colour and stage background ensures that even when hip-hop moves into the theatre, they keep it real.
Kate Prince – lyricist, librettist, choreographer, artistic director of ZooNation and hip hop ambassador to the West End – clearly has a lot on her mind.
Intolerance, library closures and the need for street culture to embrace more formal education are only some of the issues bubbling under this ungainly parable about an embittered ruler (Duwane Taylor) who steals the sun and turns his city into a woman-oppressing fortress where love and books are banned.
At the other end of the happy spectrum, Taylor’s fierce, angry locking represents a body whose own neurons are trying to Taser it into submission.
And Teneisha Bonner, as one of two women who disguise themselves as men to infiltrate the city, proves to be his mushy but choreographically brilliant redemption, by throwing his own moves back at him, softened, feminised and thus stronger. Then it all ends in a party. Despite the shaky structure, Some Like it Hip Hop looks sure to be a massive hit.
LONDONDANCE.COM
by Graham Watts
The world of entertainment is paved with ‘second album syndrome’ or the curse of a second project failure; whether it is the follow-up music album, a second novel or the second series of a hit TV show, repeating oneâs own debut success is the hardest act to follow.  And this was the task for Kate Prince and her ZooNation Dance Company, whose first full-length work, Into the Hoods, was a runaway success over several seasons in many locations from separate stints at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to two long runs in the West End.
Though it would be easy to imagine Some Like It Hip Hop to be a spoof on the famous Billy Wilder film (Some Like It Hot) – with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon – the only main reference is in the cross-dressing of the two leads, though here it is gender-swapping in reverse. In the film, Curtis and Lemmon become members of an all-woman band to escape the attentions of the mob, after unwittingly witnessing something akin to the Valentineâs Day massacre; and here, Gough and Bonner dress as men to get back into a city from which they have been expelled after breaking the âno women allowedâ rules of âThe Governorâ (a suitably imposing cameo by Duwane Taylor).
The story itself is often hard to follow and, in particular, the opening sequences are cluttered and fussy, with regular set movements and the rat-a-tat introduction of too many characters. None of this was helped by some peripheral technical problems with the Narratorâs microphone, which made some words unintelligible to the audience in the Dress Circle. This was a pity because actor, Tachia Newall, had considerable charisma when we could hear his whole sentences.  However, all quibbles are brushed aside when the dancing gets going in earnest and the second act is thankfully free of the narrative clutter that clogged up the early scenes.   The original music by DJ Walde and Josh Cohen (with lyrics by Prince herself) was a little hit and miss although I suspect that the tunes will grow on me over time.  Sherona Knight was certainly a songstress to take note of, dominating the stage whenever she was performing.
Any concerns about the slow start are long forgotten by the time of a rousing gospel-style finale, which follows on from a last, brief dance cameo in the spotlight from the entire cast, including the non-dance crew.  At the end, everyone is lined up at the front of the stage and with little need of encouragement it has the entire audience on its feet for an encore.  Just as with Into The Hoods, Prince and her team know how to send an audience home happy and in doing so she has done more than enough to wipe out any ‘second album syndrome’ .
THE GUARDIAN
By Luke Jennings
‘Destined to be a smash-hit’: Kate Prince’s Some Like It Hip Hop. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
The story tells of a city whose governor (Taylor), unbalanced by the loss of his wife, has locked the community into a repressive regime where books are banned, women confined to menial tasks and offenders banished to the chill desolation outside the city. The first to suffer this fate is the free-spirited Sudsy, danced by Shaun Smith, and he’s swiftly followed by Kerri (Bonner) and Jo-Jo (Gough). The only way back into the city is via one of the work details recruited from the ranks of the rejects, but as only men are required, Kerri and Jo-Jo have to drag up in wigs, moustaches and suits.
Taylor, meanwhile, is a magisterial governor, expressing his fractured psyche though quiveringly tense locking and popping routines. But perhaps the most finely shaded performance is Smith’s. As the hapless, sweet-natured Sudsy he combines cutting-edge moves with a doleful anxiety to please which recalls Norman Wisdom and the greats of music-hall clowning.
The piece looks good. Ben Stones’s steampunk designs give a grim, dystopian feel, and Prince’s choreography hits the mark every time. Not only as display but as a vehicle for emotion. There’s a duet for Bonner and Gooden which is just sensual enough to give their relationship an ambiguous edge, and in a later trio for Smith, Gough and Bonner, Prince’s filmic montage of angled limbs and liquid upper-body moves is perfectly expressive of their individual dilemmas.
Inevitably there are flaws. The piece opens with an exposition by a narrator which is rendered near inaudible by poor amplification. The first half seems at once over-plotted and over-simplistic: there are, for example, no unsympathetic female characters, and the overbearing masculine behaviour could be much more subtly drawn. There are structural problems raised by the Oprah subplot, which is central to the resolution but encountered comparatively late in the piece, and in consequence has a tacked-on feel.
And given the show’s references to Billy Wilder’s 1959 film Some Like It Hot, which itself references Shakespearean comedy, we are led to expect a more comprehensive romantic pairing-off than is delivered. Jo-Jo and Simeon are an established item some time before the end, and Kerri, in an echo of Twelfth Night‘s Viola and Duke Orsino, appears destined for the governor, although this is not especially clearly signalled. Oprah, Sudsy and the others, meanwhile, are left out on a limb, love-wise.
But these are early days. Into the Hoods continued to evolve long after its 2006 debut in this theatre, and Some Like It Hip Hop is surely destined for the same smash-hit status.
ZooNation’s Some Like It Hip Hop will preview at the Birmingham Hippodrome 13th – 15th October and will then run at the Sadler’s Wells Peacock Theatre 20th October – 19th November.
This is a performance I did with ZooNation at the Olivier Awards 2011 and was broadcast on BBC Red Button. It was mainly choreographed by Kate Prince but Duwane Taylor, Teneisha Bonner and I helped her with certain sections. It’s the BBC Symphony Orchestra playing an out take from West Side Story.
We are performing a 17 minute promo from ZooNation’s new show Some Like It Hip Hop at Canada Square Park tonight at 7.30pm and it’s FREE!!! Why not come down to see what this new hip hop show, that I am partly choreographing and performing in, is all about?
The event is called Magical Of The Musicals and will be an evening full of entertainment.
We are opening Some Like It Hip Hop at Sadler’s Wells Peacock Theatre on the 20th October 2011 until 19th November 2011.
I’m part of the 2nd iPhone dance app from Make Dance called “Street”. Learn moves from some of the UK’s finest dancers including Turbo, Lizzie Gough, myself and many more.
We’ll be performing a 20 minute extract of Some Like It Hip Hop at West End Live today (Saturday the 18th June). It’s taking place at Trafalgar Square at 5.20. Come and watch us to see what you can expect from the full show from 20th October – 19th November at Sadler’s Wells Peacock Theatre.
Well this was recorded last November so it’s kind of a bit dated! They used some weird clips of me and Lizzie (well particularly me lol) which would rather qualify as outtakes. Haha! Never mind…. Enjoy!
We are doing a run from 20th October – 19th November at Peacock Theatre in London. The choreographers are Kate Prince, Tommy Franzen, Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, Ryan Chappell, Duwane Tayler.
Simeon Qseya choreographed a hip hop routine for the choreography camp of So You Think You Can Dance 2011 and Tommy & Lizzie performed it for the contestants. Afterwards Simeon, Tommy and Lizzie taught the routine to the contestants but unfortunately the performance didn’t make the edit in episode 2. The video of Tommy & Lizzie rehearsing the routine is by no means polished as it was done in 2 hours but I thought it might be interesting to see the whole routine.
Don’t forget to watch the Olivier Awards tomorrow (Sunday) at 6pm. I’m dancing with ZooNation in a hip hop interpretation of The Quintet and Somewhere from West Side Story. The night is also celebrating Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday.
First day of Move It today. Come and watch my performance with Lizzie Gough at 2.15, our live Sofa Interview at 4pm and of course our stand no.127. I have special Move It offers on my merchandise and if you sign up for my newsletter you’ll get a chance to win free merchandise and get special offers on tickets for future performances. Hope to see you today! đ
The brand new iPhone app Make Dance is finally released on iTunes!! Learn dance from me, Lizzie Gough and dancers from Pineapple Dance Group plus many more.
Lizzie Gough and I will be performing a little showcase on Friday the 11th of March at 2.15pm. We will also attend the SOFA Interview at 4pm to talk about our careers.
On the Saturday 12th March we will also perform with Some Like It Hip Hop at 1.20pm. At 4pm we will join the SOFA Interview with Kate Prince and Teneisha Bonner to talk about Some Like It Hip Hop.
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