Birmingham’s world-famous band collides with the city’s world-class dancers, as Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) return to the Hippodrome in Black Sabbath: The Ballet. The production is an electric love letter to Sabbath in three acts - particularly poignant following their last gig this July, and lead singer Ozzy Osbourne’s death just seventeen days later. 

Last night, BRB’s director Carlos Acosta touchingly dedicated the performance to Ozzy. The ballet, first performed in 2023, was at the heart of Acosta’s epic Birmingham Trilogy - three new works, beginning with City of a Thousand Trades, and concluded last year by Luna. 

Act 1 celebrates the creation of Heavy Metal, and is choreographed by Raúl Reinoso. Act 2, by Cassi Abranches, zones in on the band - complete with recorded interviews with the four band-mates, and Ozzy’s wife, Sharon. In a fitting finale Act 3, choreographed by Pontus Lidberg, is entitled ‘Everybody is a Fan’.

The ballet is accompanied by the epic sounds of a live orchestra, blended with samples from the band. Christopher Austin was conductor and also lead composer, alongside Marko Nyberg and Sun Keting. Guitarist Marc Hayward joins the fray in Act 1 & 3 - appearing as a ‘Guitar Spirit’, and occasionally being lifted above the heads of the ensemble. 

By the end of Act 3, the music has built to a fitting climax, but at the start it feels quite restrained, and it never quite reaches the bone-shaking volume levels that some fans might be craving. The final crescendo was enhanced on opening night by a guest appearance from Tony Iommi himself, in an unsurprisingly well-received encore. 

Act 1 opens with a promisingly mesmerizing sequence of black-clad dancers, looming from the darkness at the back of the stage, to the opening lines of War Pigs - and Ozzy’s unmistakable vocals. Highlights of the first act are an intense sequence with two dancers locked in an endless kiss, and an allusion to the industrial origins of Heavy Metal - a lone figure mechanically swinging a rope. 

In the second act the production hits its stride, with orchestral arrangements, composed by Sun Keting, of Black Sabbath, Orchid, Planet Caravan and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. The music accompanies recorded reminiscences from Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. Dancers travel the darkness individually, in pairs and in bands of four, moving to the irregular rhythms of their speech. The design is pared back but impactful - a factory production line is hinted before it turns into the strings of Iommi’s guitar.

The final act celebrates the band’s legacy, beginning with a poised ensemble, who become fluid and playful as the music builds. The dancers are rejoined by Hayward’s Guitar Spirit, in a joyful duet of solo guitar and solo dancer - beautifully embodying this meeting of music and ballet, with Hayward’s swaggering stage presence blending into the elegance of the company.

Black Sabbath: The Ballet explodes with Brummie pride. It might seem an unlikely pairing, but the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Black Sabbath - globally renowned in their vastly different fields - have forged something truly unique. Don’t miss the chance to see this remarkable production, now it’s found its way home.

Four Stars

Black Sabbath: The Ballet was reviewed on Thursday 18 September by Jessica Clixby at Birmingham Hippodrome, where it shows until Saturday 27 September. Image by Johan Persson.