Review: Alice Cooper's Theatre of Death

It's a nightmare being Alice Cooper - and he revels in it. Of course the nightmare is prolonged by the fact Alice is immortal.

He is executed twice within the first 30 minutes of his Theatre of Death show, which is like a fans' favourites type set spanning his 40 year career.

The first execution is by guillotine; just one of the gory props that got Cooper branded a shock rocker back in the early 70s. Then, best of all, he's injected with a lethal dose of poison - yes, he sings that song which re-launched his waning career in 1989 - through a giant syringe by a hot looking nurse.

That tottering nurse then wheels Cooper out in a wheel chair, settles him on stage and proceeds to rip off her overcoat and starts angle-grinding her crotch, sending sparks flying.

Then she strips, ever so tastefully behind a white screen, but she doesn't last long as Cooper throttles her before holding her in his arms to sing his 1975 hit, Only Women Bleed.

And another thing about Alice is, he's forever living out his rebellious and bloody youth. He kicks the show off with a short all-in sing-a-long of his trademark song School's Out (which he plays in full again at encore time), the rowdy Department of Youth, and another early song, I'm Eighteen off 1971's Love It To Death.

Other highlights are the shouty and raw No More Mr. Nice Guy, the lurching Welcome To My Nightmare, and the heavy blues of Under My Wheels, one of the best songs off his classic Killer.

That song sums up Cooper: he's a guy who loves the blues, but prefers it heavy, and takes it to another level through gory and gonzo-like theatrics. He's here to entertain us.

He gets knocked off twice more during the show when he's strung up and hanged, and then spiked to death.

And his costumes are a mix of lecherous and grand: starting out in head-to-toe black leather, with a crutch made out of bones; he's then strapped into a straitjacket; and then dons a crocodile suit while playing maracas.

And all the fresh air this former alcoholic-turned-golf addict gets on the fairways is obviously good for him because his voice is still strong, and at times surprisingly beautiful, especially on Only Women Bleed.

One rabid fan nearly turned the Aotea Centre into a real life theatre of death when he either fell off, or jumped - the crowd around him weren't quite sure - from the circle balcony into the stalls. It's a long way down, but he was okay by the sounds of it, and so was the poor bloke he fell on.

And through it all, Alice just kept playing. It was a nightmare of a night in the Theatre of Death.

Reviewed by Scott Kara