Mixtape: Boy Band vs Girl Band - Review - Live Theatre

Mixtape: Boy Band vs Girl Band
Live Theatre 
5.9.14

Last weekend I went along to check out Mixtape at the Live Theatre, not entirely knowing what to expect. I needed some company for the evening so invited my sister to come along. I lured her in with the Boy Band/Girl Band thing, and carefully avoided any words like quiz night or audience participation. She doesn't really do either of those but she does do pop music. In hindsight that may have been a mistake but as the Reluctant Teenager was more reluctant than ever over this one (he really doesn't do the boy band/girl band thing at all, and he enough audience participation at our last outing to last him a lifetime!).
Anyway, I digress!

Mixtape, as you may have gathered, is a kind of music quiz/sketch show hybrid kind of thing. Groups of young actors write and perform mini sketches based on pop songs - in this case by either girl or boy bands. There are many Mixtapes and they are all themed differently. The sketches cannot be any longer than the duration of the song and can only use words from the lyrics of the song. The same words, not necessarily in the same order (to misquote Mr Morecambe). The audience, complete with Playlist answer sheet, have to guess the song and artist. Points are awarded for correct answers.

Sounds like a piece of cake (and inded, there was cake at one point). It was almost as infuriating as the old Bits and Pieces intros quiz from the Radio 1 Roadshow (anyone else old enough to actually remember that?) The words were tantalisingly familiar but just not enough for us to guess correctly. The answers hovered out of the grasp of our braincells. But maybe that was just us? Other teams managed to score loads. I'm not good with Boy/Girl bands, they all sound the same to me! (Good grief am I sounding more and more like an old person?) But my sister is a Boyzone, Westlife, Take That fiend...and she was no help! We did abysmally but had a load of fun (well I had fun, my sister was not quite so thrilled by it all, but she's even older than me so, y'know...)

Some sketches were laugh out loud funny, some were painfully real and you laughed with that uncomfortable  "Should I really be laughing at this?" question in your head, others were just plain strange! But, isn't that just the pop world for you?

Mixtape is a quiz night with a difference. It's a bit of lighthearted fun. If you are looking for something other than the usual Friday night crush in the bar, pay them a visit! Next shows are 25th October and 7th November. Who knows, you might even win the coveted Golden Mixtape.

Denise Sparrowhawk