Review: THE CITY Sets an Israeli Beat at Haifa's Beat Club

A low lit stage, cynical and sluggish leading character, acoustic background music and realistic lyrics are only a few of the reasons why there's no musical more Israeli today than the Jerusalem based Incubator Theatre's fringe rap opera The City. Perhaps that's why for the past four years this show has become such a phenomenon and now not only has new dates for its national tour but also includes performances with its English version.

It's a common detective story. Joe, a cynical and bitter detective working in a corrupt city, is visited one night in his office by a young woman named Sarah Bennett who tells him about the mysterious disappearance of her sister. Joe decides to take the case and we follow him and the involved characters as he's working on it. The entire show is written in rhyme and combines rap, hip hop and related genres with numerous amounts of lyrics handled impeccably by the well rehearsed, professional and in sync cast members.
The text, written by the members of The Victor Jackson Show who are all in the cast, is smart, realistic and witty and filled with lots of metaphors, though at times with a bit too many of them.

The cast members are all wonderful and show great collaboration, but it's clear to see that the real talent in this show comes from the creators of it, the three members of The Victor Jackson Show. Amit Ulman plays Joe with a deep voice ideal for such a role and fully delivers the feeling of a detective that thinks he's out of everyone else's league. Omer Havron plays various roles where with each of them he shows his wide acting range and most impressive rapping skills. Finally, Omer Mor who wrote the very suitable music and plays almost all of it during the production with an acoustic guitar, improvised percussions and especially his vocals, with the exact amount of stage presence needed for his role.
And then there's the two other cast members, Roni Rocket and Dorit Lilien, who as much as they try and truly do their best during all these years, it's easy to see that the show didn't come from them. Lilien plays all her characters very well but her singing voice, as pleasant as it is, is not as strong as expected from a character such as Sarah Bennett, especially with a soulful song that relies on her to have such a voice and singing skills.

Whether it's because of the contemporary genres, the self-consciousness in the lyrics, the advertisements about the evening, the venue, the large fan base of the show or its Israeli character, it's great to finally see a sold out theatrical show in Haifa with mostly young audience members, something that hopefully other productions will start to follow in order to make this happen more.

Further information can be found at the Incubator Theatre's website about upcoming shows of the English version and Hebrew version.

Photo Credit: Yudan Abadi.