Hello!
After so many musical posts concerning “Wicked”, I am
writing something a bit different. Yes, it’s another posts about a musical and
yes, I will eventually get back on track and talk about my holiday in Italy and
return in London, but this happened last night and as usual I can’t leave
musicals un-reviewed for long! I promise my post about Italy is half done and I’ll
upload it as soon as possible. Coming back to university has been crazy because
there’s so much to do... academically and not!
Anyway, I had never heard anything about this musical before
last Friday night when I read the name on the facebook page of an artist called
Anna O’Byrne. She is my second favourite, if not absolute favourite, Christine from “The Phantom of the Opera”, even
though I came to know her thanks to a recording of “Love Never Dies”, the
sequel of Phantom (more about this in later posts, when I get up to date). I fell
in love with her voice, and her performances in general, and she quickly became
one of my very favourite musical theatre personalities. So, I was going through
her facebook page trying to find out what she was doing at the moment and I
stumbled upon this series of post talking about the 40th anniversary
concert of “A Little Night Music”. I did a quick research and it turned out the
show would be on for a one-off on the following Monday, which would be
yesterday! After a couple of calls with my parents, I worked out a solution
that worked for all of us... the ticket for the concert would be an early
birthday present from my aunt :) Yep, I had a ticket an hour or so later and I
was beaming because I’d get to see Anna!
After a lovely afternoon that will be talked about in later
posts, I made my way to the Palace Theatre, where the show was going to take
place, with a quick stop at “The Theatre Cafe”. I had heard so much about this
place on twitter and I really wanted to get my own Wicked-cup :)
Little detour aside, I reached my seat and I almost felt
dizzy for the height... I do not
suffer heights, but that balcony was very
steep and a lot above the ground. I
felt like I could fall anytime I tried to stand up, like for the final standing
ovation! I was so excited about the show, because I had read the plot and it
sounded entertaining :)
Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to all my expectations. The
plot was very good, funny and well-developed in the musical, but I found the
songs were not catchy and I ended up hoping for the show to end half way
through act two... I was convinced by it, despite some amazing performers!
Below I’m just commenting a few artists, who impressed me
for different reasons.
Anna O’Byrne (Anne)
– she sang very little, sadly, but whenever she did she was astounding! Her
vocals are so beautiful and crystalline and... and... and oh my goodness, she
is incredible *_* I found myself smiling anytime she’d sing even just a note!
She interpreted a young, naive and silly girl and had to change her voice to
act and she did very well, in my opinion :) So, even though the show wasn’t
amazing, it was all worth it to see her!
I met Anna at stage door afterwards and she was sooooo sweet! We took a picture together and I reckon it’s one of my best stage door pictures, because she is really actively taking part in it :) She also signed my programme, of course.
I met Anna at stage door afterwards and she was sooooo sweet! We took a picture together and I reckon it’s one of my best stage door pictures, because she is really actively taking part in it :) She also signed my programme, of course.
Fra Fee (Henrik) –
handsome boy, no doubts about that. However, I didn’t like his voice, despite
how amazing lots of other people found him... I suppose it’s personal taste...
I met him at stage door as well and he was pretty kind, even though in a rush!
Laura Pitt-Pulford (Petra)
– she surprised me and in a very positive way. I was totally not expecting her
to sing as amazingly as she did, not after a show in which she barely had a few
lines... but Petra’s song near the end of the show made me attentive to the
performance again! “The Miller’s son” isn’t a song I particularly appreciate in
itself, but her vocals were impressive, to say the least. She got so many
cheers and applauses at the end of the number!
Jamie Parker
(Count Carl-Magnus) – I like his voice better than any of the other males on
stage, but that’s all I have to say about him.
Joanna Riding
(Countess Charlotte) – Oh my gosh, she was hilarious haha I couldn’t stop
laughing every time she said her lines, like the rest of the audience. She was
just too funny in her tone of voice and acting!
Despite not being totally taken by the show, I still think it
was worth the ticket because I saw Anna being amazing and a few other things
that I really appreciated :)
A few more photos...
 |
| At stage door with Michael Colbourne (whom I also saw in Les Miserables as Enjolras) |
 |
| Programme signed by Anna O'Byrne, Fra Fee and Michael Colbourne |
 |
| A few shots from the show (from Anna O'Byrne's facebook) |
No comments:
Post a Comment