Black Sabbath — The Ballet will return to the stage this autumn, beginning with a homecoming season at Birmingham Hippodrome from Sept. 18–27, the production's collaborators said, and guitarist Tony Iommi described the project as something that "means everything" to him.
The dance-theatre piece, created in partnership with Birmingham Royal Ballet and led by the company's artistic director Carlos Acosta, premiered in 2023 to sold-out audiences and drew heavy metal fans to a ballet house for the first time. The revived production will tour the UK, Europe and the United States following the September run in Birmingham.
Iommi, the founding guitarist of Black Sabbath, said he had been sceptical about translating the band's music for ballet but praised Acosta's vision and enthusiasm. "I couldn't believe it at first, but when we got together at a meeting the enthusiasm in Carlos was incredible," Iommi told BBC Breakfast. "He knew he had a vision of what it should be, and it gave me the confidence."
He added that while he had once struggled to imagine ballet being set to Black Sabbath's sound, he was now "delighted" to see it realised and expressed regret that his late bandmate Ozzy Osbourne did not live to witness the production. "[The ballet] means everything and it's a shame in a lot of ways he didn't get to see the ballet because he wanted to see it. It's our lives and music," Iommi said.
Acosta, who grew up in Cuba, said that heavy metal and the music of Black Sabbath had been prohibited and regarded as taboo in his youth. He credited his relocation to the United Kingdom in 1998 and his immersion in the ballet world with broadening his musical horizons and informing his approach to the production.
"We wanted to bring something bold, crazy and forward thinking in order to gain new audience members but also bring awareness to the city of Birmingham and the many treasures that emerged from the city," Acosta said. The creative team framed the work as a celebration of both the city's musical legacy and the expressive range of ballet.
The 2023 season's success was widely noted for drawing audiences who might not usually attend classical dance performances, prompting discussion within the arts community about crossover programming and ways to diversify theatre audiences. The production's blending of heavy metal's soundscape with contemporary choreography has been presented as an example of ambitious genre fusion within institutional ballet.
Birmingham Royal Ballet and the show's producers said the return engagement aims to build on that crossover appeal while offering new and expanded audiences an opportunity to see the work. After the Birmingham dates, the company plans stops across the United Kingdom and then onward to venues in Europe and the United States; specific dates and locations beyond the Hippodrome engagement were not detailed in the announcement.
Producers said ticket information, tour dates and casting for the upcoming run will be released ahead of the premiere. The project has been cited by company leadership as part of a broader effort to expand the reach of ballet by commissioning works that connect with contemporary culture and local artistic histories.