Some Like It Hip Hop, Peacock

In a post-Olympic world, we’re in love with physical prowess — from back flips to headspins. Which makes the revival of ZooNation’s Some Like It Hip Hop (nominated for two Oliviers and a South Bank Award) so timely.

You gasp at the ingenuity of the human body. Directed by choreographer Kate Prince, with music by Josh Cohen and DJ Walde, this is a mash-up of Some Like It Hot and Twelfth Night (cue romantic confusion, cross-dressing and comic clowning).

But it’s also subtly political. This is a landscape where books are banned and women are treated as second-class citizens. Thrown out of the city, two smart young women don wigs, moustaches and suits. And prove themselves the equal of the men.

Choreographer Prince celebrates the skill and athleticism of hip hop (have young bodies ever looked so gorgeous?) but she is the first to call out casual misogyny. Because Some Like It Hip Hop is so much more inclusive than the musical genre suggests. Men can be women; race and sexuality are fluid.

ZooNation — who in 2006 brought us Into The Hoods, a hip hop retelling of Sondheim’s Into The Woods — are the embodiment of diversity in terms of shape, size, colour.

The young dancers with their liquid upper-body moves are astonishing. You’ll recognise Tommy Franzén and Lizzie Gough from BBC1’s So You Think You Can Dance. Franzen as needy bookworm Simeon (a dead ringer for Gareth Malone) is especially touching.

Yes, there’s a whiff of sixth-form pantomime. But this only makes you realise how powerful the movement vocabulary is. Who knew hip hop could embody grief and embarrassment, desire and bookishness?

Trust me, you’ll be dancing in the aisle.

Until October 13 (0844 412 4322; sadlerswells.com)