★★★★★ Svensational journey of the imagination to a Bowie soundtrack.

Adelaide Festival Theatre
June 23, 2016

Created and performed prior to Bowie’s death, Starman is not a by the number tribute show. It’s far more substantial. Sven Ratzke honours Bowie, not by mimicking him, but by distilling Bowie’s boldness and fearlessness to create his own art.

Built like an Olympic volleyball player and dressed in a slinky one-piece covered (for a short time only) by a dazzling jacket, Ratzke imposed himself on the audience with his own rock and roll composition Rock ‘n’ Roll Sandman that could have passed easily for a Bowie song. However, from that point, the Star tour guide took the audience on a wild, exciting adventure. Like a puff of stardust that he could smell in our minds and after administering some Dutch kissing, Sven whisked us through a white hole to a disco where boy meets girl (Rebel Rebel) then to a ship of tattooed sailors bound for New York (Lady Grinning Soul) and then to New York itself and the rooftop of the Chelsea Hotel (Starman).

Accosted by a white rabbit resembling Andy Warhol (Time), we found ourselves back in the urban New York jungle...