Into the inner-city groove

With all the fuss about Trevor Nunn’s beleaguered Gone With the Wind, it’s easy to forget London has already been graced with a gem of a musical this spring.

Funny, original and exuberant, ZooNation’s Into the Hoods is a hiphop interpretation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods, transposed to an inner-city tower block. The set is wittily postmodern, the soundtrack a cool mash-up of Prince, Bob Marley, Kanye West and James Brown.

This is a show about real bodily pleasure. You come out dazzled by the back flips — cursing your own wheezy unfitness. But there is an intellectual rigour, too. Into the Hoods has been workshopped at different venues (including twice at the Edinburgh Festival).

There are strong elements of physical theatre. Adults will pick up the references to black history, while teens will applaud the jokes about X-Factor and vacuous celebrity culture. The comparison is more with Jerry Springer: the Opera than a conventional musical.

Hip-hop has never been my bag. But this is a show refreshingly free of macho posturing. I adored the cross-dressing dancers who play the Ugly Sisters and then morph into The Supremes. While the female leads — including Lil Red (Riding Hood) and Spinderella — are genuinely feisty.

Best of all, it risks moments of social commentary. The sequence when the loser inhabitants of Ruff Endz Estate line up against the London skyline feels painfully autobiographical (few of these performers are conventional stage school brats). I looked around and our whole row was in tears. Five minutes later they were dancing in the aisles.

Part of the problem with Into the Hoods is that it is so much less on paper than it is in the flesh. Even I found myself trancing out when I started reading the publicity material. But, trust me, it’s a fantastic, life-enhancing take on multicultural London. Boris and family should get there tonight.
Booking until 7 June (0844 482 5170, www.intothehoods.com)

Into The Hoods
Novello Theatre
Aldwych, WC2B 4LD