This celebration of South African music and black spirit breezes into the West End like a breath of fresh air. You talk about people having no "side"; well this show has no side. It is what it is: an unsophisticated knees-up imbued with the history of apartheid. It has the grief, humour, rhythms and beats that in the past 20 years have found their way into contemporary pop.
What it certainly isn't is a piece of theatre. If you want narrative and puppets, you are in the wrong place - you need The Lion King. Umoja (meaning "the spirit of togetherness") simply offers a series of snapshots of South African life, largely from the apartheid era; it provides the opportunity to make a song and dance and gives each cast member a star turn.
The sections are linked by narration from the genial Hope Ndaba (a plumper version of Nelson Mandela), whose script seems to have been penned by people who earn their living writing for National Geographic. He keeps stating the obvious: "When there is a wedding there are songs of celebration, and when there is oppression, songs of pain."
There is something curious about the way the show looks to the past rather than the present. Anyone who has seen Gumboots, Poppie Nongena, Sophiatown, or any of the musicals that have emerged from South Africa over the past two decades, will already know more than this evening offers. And if you really want to experience the drama of apartheid, then you must look to the plays of Athol Fugard, or to Percy Mtwa, Mbongeni Ngema and Barney Simon's Woza Albert! This is lightweight in comparison.
Nobody in their right mind would believe that a song can change the world, and the cynical would say that like so many South African shows, Umoja has a built-in compassion factor that makes up for the inadequacies of its construction and staging. I can't imagine what market there is for a piece such as this in the West End, and yet, unlike so many evenings on offer in London's theatres, you come out feeling considerably more cheerful than when you went in.
Booking until February 16. Box office: 0870 906 3798.
