According to the publicity, We Got Rhythm ‘smacks the audience in the face with a satirical spectacle of choreography, slapstick and farce’. I may have been watching a different show as none of these things were true. Apparently a political satire, We Got Rhythm possesses no discernible plot or characterisation. A vessel for a hard-hitting message more than anything else, we are dragged through a crude script only to be confronted with the revelation that ‘we are all drones’. Cutting edge stuff.
I was genuinely looking forward to an energetic slapstick show with vibrant choreography, but what I got instead was a string of dull dialogue scenes devoid of direction. The ‘choreography’, too, must be placed in commas so inverted that they almost go full circle. In total the dancing added up to about two minutes of the show, which was performed with about as much energy as a rock and with all the sharpness of a sponge. Near the end of the play one lame joke was cast out about the choreography, but it did absolutely nothing to excuse what had come before. Though not always atrocious, the cast generally gave a second-rate performance. It seemed that they had received little in the way of guidance.
Expecting a 45 minute show, it was a shock when the end slapped us in the face after barely half an hour. Dazed and confused, it took a while for the audience to realise that it was time to go and that there wasn’t a clever twist waiting in the wings. One flustered couple asked ‘Did we come to the right show?’ and I honestly didn’t know how to answer. I felt cheated and would not blame anyone for demanding a refund if they could.
Overall, We Got Rhythm is boring and underdeveloped. More pie-in-the-face than stab-in-the-back, any controversy is lost through sheer heavy-handedness. Dull and dated, allegedly the show has been ‘lost since the 1930s’ - it should have stayed that way.
