The Guardian
Monday August 9th 1999
GUMBOOTS ****
Palladium

There is no way this show can fail. What we are talking about here is a group of bare-chested South African men dancing their boots off. We're talking sex on legs, the Chippendales made over for a family audience. We're talking pull your heart strings resilience and a symbolic show of strength. We're talking amazing cappella singing in Olympic displays of athleticism. We're talking infectious laughter and the heat of the beat that sets your brain on fire and makes you want to dance yourself. We're talking a hit, we're talking mega huge.

The South African gumboot dance dates back to the apartheid regime, when black workers were forced down flooded mined by white owners. Foot rot was a common problem, so wellington boots were provided, and as the miners were forbidden to speak they created their own form of communication by slapping their boots. This unique form of Morse code gradually evolved into a dance form that made its way onto the streets and into the Soweto clubs.

Now it has been packaged into a slick, shiny show for international consumption, a show that cunningly puts a song in honor of Nelson Mandela side by side with another called If I'm too Sexy, and one about dying miners with high-energy drinking songs with a built in feel good factor.. And it's all performed by nine sweaty bundles of energy. There's something for everyone.

Even as you know you are being shamelessly manipulated, it is hard not to be swept along by the exuberance, and although the show is too long, it's beat stays with you long after the last notes have died away. It gives new meaning to the phrase 'giving it a bit of welly'.

LG