Tap Dogs - Rebooted, Sadlers Wells, Wednesday 6th August at 8.p.m.

For this new tour of Tap Dogs some female members of cast have been introduced to spice things up a bit. But apart from that there is really not a lot of new things going on in this production.

It was good to see Sadlers Wells packed with a largely young and appreciative audience last night and as usual the mix of percussive and complex rhythms with humour was extremely well executed. The set pieces we have grown to know and love such as the drum pads, scaffolding tower, welding equipment and water troughs continue to delight the audience and I was really surprised that the first few rows bothered with their plastic sheets during the water sequence, I longed to sit there and be cooled off on the hottest day of the year!

Most of the new additions to the repetoire occurred with the inclusion of the three female members of cast, Vanessa Schembri, Rachel Schmalz and Leah Howard. There was a superb sequence with basketballs where the constant thud of the ball was interspersed with electric tap. As I sat there trying to pick out individual rhythmic sequences I was quite over-awed by the precision and concentration required to keep the sequence going.

There were also some lovely smaller set pieces involving two of three members of cast which displayed a more lyrical and lighter style of tap which made a nice contrast to the heavy street style of tap that Tap Dogs are famous for.

It is still a good evening's entertainment and was extremely receptively recieved by last night's audience, but I was rather hoping for a few more new tricks to have emerged. This was my third time of seeing the show and unless on their next tour I am convinced that there would be a lot more new material, then this will probably be my last visit.

<small>[ 18 February 2004, 07:57 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

Tap Dogs: Rebooted

Luke Jennings
The Guardian

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Glad to hear there was an appreciative audience - must have given it a big buzz.

Tap Dogs Rebooted, Sadler's Wells, London
By John Percival for The Independent

For these guys to call themselves Tap Dogs is an almost criminal understatement. To tap something is to hit it lightly, and they would not know the word lightly if it came up and bludgeoned them. What they do is so heavy, so aggressive, that it needs a new name. Crash dancing, bang dancing, wallop dancing.

The "dogs" bit of their title is apt enough, however, because they do sit up and beg for applause, at the end of every number and rather often in the middle too.

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Tap Dogs Rebooted
By Donald Hutera for The Times


SLICKER, longer and louder than ever, Australia’s testosterone-driven percussive dance phenomenon has resurfaced with one new wrinkle. In Tap Dogs Rebooted, women have entered the loosely imagined building-site domain occupied by men only since the show’s 1995 premiere.
In truth, the distaff presence doesn’t make a huge difference. The creator Dein Perry’s production is still an aggressively entertaining event carried along by rock-concert lighting, a chest-beating soundtrack and a pumped-up sense of “Top this!” camaraderie.

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Tap Dogs Rebooted
By Victoria Worsley for The Stage


After the runaway success of the original Tap Dogs – including its conversion into the film Bootmen – it is back in London, complete with new routines.

The biggest change from the original is that there are now female cast members – Leah Howard, Vanessa Schembri and Rachel Schmalz. They do not really add anything to the show but prove themselves equal to the men when it comes to enthusiasm.

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