ALL of the superlatives heaped on Tap Dogs at last year's Edinburgh Festival were deserved, for this team scoop tap dance out of the jazz age time warp in which it has so long lingered and hurl it into the present day.
On the Gaiety stage at the opening you are faced with a square platform surmounted by a sheet of corrugated iron, but soon the sheet lifts enough to reveal what appears to be a single pair of boots, at which point the space between them widens beyond a human span to become five pairs and the superb Dein Perry and his wonderful team thunder out percussive rhythms with their feet like a series of drum breaks, the sound travelling in stereo across the heavilymiked stage as the audience roars approval.
Dancing on different metal plates produces a symphony of sound before guitar, keyboards and percussion join in from their raised platform, while the versatile set becomes a building site, constructed by the six men even as they dance on ceilings and ramps raised at 45 degree angles, climb scaffolding and haul on ropes, indulging in the rivalries and horseplay of McAlpine's fusiliers before donning goggles and showering the set with sparks from their acetylene torches.
By way of diversion they create a memorable evocation of a steam train, cool down by tipping buckets of water over each other, and play ball while the audience willingly participates in the rhythm with finger clicking and the lighting produces one splendid effect after another.
It's only on until Saturday week, so on no account miss this brilliant, funny, athletic, macho show.
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