Review: Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra: Boxed - A Beatboxing Adventure

Sholmo has ditched a script in favour of some well orchestrated beatboxing.

Words: David Barros

Images used with permission

Boxed Logo The first time I went to the beatboxing regional heats last year I didn't expect to hear any live vocals - it was human beatboxing, after all.

Seeing Boxed, I expected there to be speech, but I didn't hear any dialogue. Shlomo and his amazing vocal orchestra flipped the script!

Boxed tells the story of Lonely Joe, a shy guy who can only communicate through beatboxing. Upon meeting charismatic Afro, he’s show he’s not the only one, and there's nothing to worry about.

Boxed - A Beatboxing Adventure In saying “flipped the script,” all interaction between the characters is done through beatboxing. The good guys beatbox upbeat rhythms, the bad guys use a selection of downbeat sounds and genres, often threatening dubstep. The rest is up to the viewer to interpret.

How all of the beatbox conversations were all scripted and seamlessly executed leaves you in wonderment - it must have taken hours of patience-testing rehearsals to get it exactly right.

Boxed feels a little slow to start off as it gets into the story and sets the scene. The stage has no props present, instead using a projection screen.

Not that the story should be focused on: the selling point of Boxed is its physical aspect, such as arranging the characters as different sounds in a drum kit before thrashing out a beat on their heads with an imaginary pair of drumsticks. That, and there's plenty humour to keep things moving.

The cast are all capable of beatboxing, but they are also accomplished vocalists, of a professional and operatic standard. When the group travels to the 1990s and sing a cover of I'm A Believer, the similarity between the actual track and their beatboxing was astounding.

There’s also a scene where the action take a turn for the worse, and it’s accompanied by an operatic score that was so close to something from a film that it was moving enough to give you goosebumps!

The second half of the show, when the characters time travel, is when the excitement picks up, with songs from the 60s,70s 80s and 90s. All of the songs are so well orchestrated you recognise them in an instant, and although the audience was a little dead/suprised/confused on the opening night of Boxed, there’s a lot for all ages to enjoy and clap along to in future shows.

It’s funny, it’s easy to understand, and the non-speaking approach is a credit as to one of the many ways beatboxing can be used to communicate with an audience.

Beatboxing + dancing

It’s worth mentioning that the choreographic talent of Simeon Qsyea was drafted in as the show’s movement director. Watching on the opening night of the show, he was responsible for placing the characters during the musical numbers.

Not strictly speaking choreography (some of the singers looked like they were having so much fun performing that they would never have taken much notice of steps), it gave the show a tidy feel with stage traffic, and presented the songs and dance routines suitably to their style.