After wowing audiences and critics alike with a sold-out premiere in 2023, Birmingham Royal Ballet‘s hit production of “Black Sabbath – The Ballet” will commence a U.K. tour in autumn 2025.
Hot on the heels of BLACK SABBATH‘s farewell gig at Villa Park in their hometown of Birmingham this summer, “Black Sabbath – The Ballet” will return with a homecoming at Birmingham Hippodrome from September 18 to September 27 following dates in Europe and the USA. The production will then visit Manchester’s The Lowry, Salford for the first time (October 8-11) before returning to Theatre Royal Plymouth (October 16-18),Sadler’s Wells, London (October 22-25) and finishing with a Scottish premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre (October 30 – November 1).
Following a complete sell-out premiere season in autumn 2023, bringing heavy metal fans to ballet for the first time, the 2025 tour will incorporate brand-new audio interviews with BLACK SABBATH band members, voices such as Sharon Osbourne and fans from across the globe. The sound design has also been revised, sharpened and turned up to full volume for this electric night of dance and rock that audiences have never experienced before.
Birmingham Royal Ballet director Carlos Acosta said: “Back in 2023 we were blown away by the awesome success of ‘Black Sabbath – The Ballet’, selling out at every performance with standing ovations and bringing audiences that had never experienced live dance before to the theatre. Now, in 2025, we are cranking the volume up to 11 with a big, bold U.K. tour that is sure to knock everyone’s socks off!”
BLACK SABBATH co-founder, lead guitarist and co-songwriter Tony Iommi said: “BLACK SABBATH have always been innovators and never been predictable, and it doesn’t come any more unpredictable than this! It was incredible to see what Carlos and the team at Birmingham Royal Ballet did back in 2023 — bringing our music to life in a way I never thought possible! It’s fantastic that more fans across the country get to see this extraordinary production this autumn on a U.K. tour.”
Composer Christopher Austin is the mastermind behind the classical reimagining of some of BLACK SABBATH‘s most iconic songs, played live at every performance by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Tony Award-winning Christopher worked closely with Iommi on the score, creating full orchestrations of legendary BLACK SABBATH tracks alongside new orchestral works inspired by their music. The orchestra is joined by guitarist Marc Hayward who plays live on stage alongside the dancers at every show.
Christopher Austin said: “For the music team, creating the score for this extraordinary ballet has been an exhilarating journey, and it all began with the most amazing gift from Tony: his trust in us to honor the band’s music and his encouragement to follow our own new paths with those iconic songs.
“The passion and commitment of the whole creative team at BRB and the overwhelming response from audiences has made ‘Black Sabbath – The Ballet’ the experience of a lifetime and I can’t wait to be back in the theatre conducting this magical show.”
The eight BLACK SABBATH tracks featured are:
* “Paranoid” (“Paranoid” album, 1970);
* “Iron Man” (“Paranoid” album, 1970);
* “War Pigs” (“Paranoid” album, 1970);
* “Black Sabbath” (“Black Sabbath” album, 1970);
* “Solitude” (Master Of Reality” album, 1971);
* “Orchid” (Master Of Reality” album, 1971);
* “Laguna Sunrise” (“Vol 4” album, 1972) and
* “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” (“Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” album, 1973).
A full-length, three-act Ballet Now commission, “Black Sabbath – The Ballet” was created by a host of international talent including lead Swedish choreographer Pontus Lidburg and Cuban designer Alexandre Arrechea with additional choreographers Raúl Reinoso and Cassi Abranches and composers Marko Nyberg and Sun Keting. Dramaturgy is by Richard Thomas and lighting design is by KJ. Metal curator is Lisa Meyer.
The U.S. premiere of “Black Sabbath – The Ballet” will take place at Virginia Arts Festival at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, Virginia in May, with performances set for Friday, May 30 (7:30 p.m.) and Saturday, May 31 (2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.).
Five other U.S. dates (June 4-8, 2025) are scheduled at The Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C.
In an October 2023 video from Birmingham Royal Ballet, Sharon Osbourne the wife and manager of BLACK SABBATH singer Ozzy Osbourne, said: “When I first heard that Birmingham Royal Ballet was putting on a ballet to BLACK SABBATH music, I just thought, this is so left field. It’s so not expected. Who would have ever thought the combination? And I just thought, brilliant. This is just so out there that it’s wonderful.”
Iommi, who had been present at some rehearsals for the U.K. “Black Sabbath – The Ballet” dates, came up on stage at the end of the opening performance to play guitar on the band’s classic song “Paranoid”. Iommi also took a bow at the end of the night along with the cast and crew. Also in attendance at the event were Iommi‘s bandmate, SABBATH bassist Geezer Butler and Sharon Osbourne, along with LED ZEPPELIN singer Robert Plant and ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA‘s Bev Bevan, who served as the touring drummer for BLACK SABBATH from 1983 to 1984 and played percussion on “The Eternal Idol” album in 1987.
In April 2023, Iommi was asked by Birmingham World if he could ever have imagined that half a century after he formed SABBATH that Birmingham’s ballet company would be dancing to their music. Tony laughed and said: “I wouldn’t have believed them, really, to be honest. At the time when I got involved with BLACK SABBATH, I thought it was great, because it was something so different, and hasn’t been done before. And I found it, I think, a good challenge.
“I’m looking at our music differently now with this [the ballet], because it is being interpreted in a different way. It’s still got the basic things, but then it did have in the different orchestral things coming in. And then I never thought for a minute we would have people dancing to BLACK SABBATH and ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Iron Man’. But here we are, you know.”
Regarding Birmingham Royal Ballet‘s interpretation of SABBATH‘s music, Tony said: “Birmingham Royal Ballet are very conscious of the work being what it is — the SABBATH music. We don’t want to change it so you can’t recognize it. So they’ve held that part of it, but added another dimension to it. So I was very happy with that.”
As for whether he thinks the Black Sabbath Ballet could inspire heavy metal fans to become ballet fans, and ballet fans to become heavy metal fans, Iommi said: “I certainly hope so. I mean, it is a strange combination, but you’ve got to push the boat out. And, you know, hopefully, we can get everybody together. But they’re opposite but they’re not at the same time — because it’s still creative. They’re creating what they’re doing. We’re creating what we’ve done, and we’re bringing them together. And I think it’d be really interesting to see the SABBATH fans and then to see the ballet fans liking it, hopefully.”
Acosta revealed early last year that 60 percent of tickets at that point for the U.K. shows had been bought by SABBATH fans. He said that “BLACK SABBATH is so different from the world of ballet, and I wanted to multiply our reach. I hate to be predictable; I hate for the company to be taken for granted. Everyone knows ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘Cinderella’ … [It’s] a great opportunity for us to show people the world of dance.”
Austin, who supervised the music for the project, said: “Unlike THE BEATLES where you can buy two enormous volumes of all their scores with all the instrumental parts, there’s not so much for BLACK SABBATH.
“When I was asked to take part in this project I thought, where do you start? The BLACK SABBATH catalog is enormous, it’s so rich and so varied. So the process initially was starting to narrow down the amount of material that we wanted to work with that would furnish us with variety, with richness, with different emotional tones, but also help us create this evening-length show.”
Austin added: “What I love about BLACK SABBATH music is the glorious irregularity. All the aspects of music — the flexibility of tempo and feel. And the extraordinary early period Ozzy vocals which are stratospheric, it’s exceeding Pavarotti in term of the high notes and ringing power.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 4‘s “Today” program, Acosta said he had been a fan of SABBATH for more than two decades, and said he felt the band’s classic protest song “War Pigs” still has particular resonance.
“‘War Pigs’ is so relevant today, how sometimes politicians and governments hide behind words. And all the wars happening at the moment… it’s timeless,” he said.
Source: blabbermouth.net
