Horrible Histories Barmy Britain

The Horrible Histories musical comedy theatre show returned to Dubai this weekend with Barmy Britain, a journey through British history. Although it was staged this time in the huge Madinat Theatre, and with more showtime options from which to choose, I nonetheless made a relatively early booking, as the show is immensely popular. I'm not sure how many other adult fans of the TV show were in the audience, as almost everyone else seemed to be accompanying children. Even I was the only one, though, who cares? As a history geek, I could not miss it.

No material from the TV series was used in the hour-long show, as far as I recall from the former, but the two-man cast still had some great sketches scripted and songs composed to bring alive British historical facts and figures, from Boudica to Charles I to Victoria. The HH TV show tradition of contrasting historical contexts with modern culture ad absurdum could be seen in some of the sketches, such as Queen Elizabeth going undercover, and the Dick Turpin story done in the style of a reality TV show. The actors did well for the number of very diverse roles they had to play, pulling quick costume changes between sketches, and delivering a very energetic performance all through.

So while the show was oriented towards a child audience (with a couple of sing-along games and such), I still found most of it engaging at my level, and certainly very educational.

Heart and Soul of Al Qasr

Their genre is not what I typically patronize, but having since long read good reviews of Heart and Soul in particular, I popped into Koubba Bar in Madinat Jumeirah's Al Qasr hotel late on Thursday night to have a listen.

Shanice Michaels does indeed have a pleasant and versatile voice, and included a fair bit of improvisation to add some individuality to the songs she sang. She and Lorendo Brown mainly did covers of popular music to playback instrumentals and sharp guitar playing by Brown. I was not too fond of the dance pop covers (maybe downbeat them a little?), but the rest was a great musical journey through the pop hits, especially the ones from the late 20th century.

Bull Funk Zoo CD Launch at Jambase

The Bull Funk Zoo launched its CD last Wednesday with a special performance at Jambase. Given the achievements of many of the band's constituents Hamdan al Abri, Elie Afif, Jeremiah John, Assaad Lakkis and Rami Lakkis (making it a sort of local supergroup), it comes as no surprise that the place was packed, and enthusiasm was high.

There was a lot of fusion funk, and some songs were not funk at all, though the BFZ's members worked well together on whatever genres they were playing. One of the more novel ones from the album was the rock-blues fusion number "Shit House Blues" (first time for me hearing a blues song being growled). I particularly like the playful and very funky "Afterparty (307)" (included in the album as a live performance recording, including the audience participation bits). "Drifter", a funk-rock-reggae fusion song, has a catchy funk-rock progression hook, and funk-rock fusion song "Junk Funk" has nice lyrics with a peppy funk backdrop.