Willemijn Verkaik In Concert - Review

****

The Dutch singing sensation Willemijn Verkaik In Concert at The Ambassadors Theatre was always going to be highly anticipated. Having sung the role of Wicked’s Elphaba in three different languages (an un-precedented feat) and recorded the voice of Elsa in Disney's Frozen in Dutch and German, a one off London concert to let the audience know a bit more about the lady behind the voice was long overdue. 

Joined on stage by musical director and pianist Tom Deering as part of a quartet of musicians, before the show started it did seem questionable if a theatre venue rather than a more intimate concert one would have been more appropriate. This doubt was quashed by the presence of Verkaik entering the stage and beginning her programme with A Piece of Sky from Yentl and something was quite evident, this is a lady that loves to sing. Not just that, but Verkaik offers no pretentiousness. Just the opposite. An endearing humility that is a pleasure to witness – an honesty very evident during her story of auditioning for the role of Aida in her early career and the layers of make-up and tissue paper she put down her bra to look fuller figured, witty and relatable to all the female performers in the audience!

The first act in particular contained some real crowd pleasers in terms of song choices that displayed Verkaik’s higher register impeccably such as You’ll Be In My Heart from Tarzan (in which she currently stars in Stuttgart) and Frozen’s Let It Go which she sang bilingually. Revelatory were middle voice songs that had more contrast in terms of vocal colour such as Adele’s Turning Tables and The Winner Takes it all, the later sung to acoustic guitar so tenderly.

The guest performers of Victoria Hamilton Barritt and James Fox gave strong vocals, in particular during the trio of Aida’s A Step Too Far. 

With a vocal stamina arguably unrivalled in musical theatre, Willemijn Verkaik In Concert cemented this status. Her delight in both singing and in she has achieved, is certainly refreshing. Perhaps a musical programme with more comedic interaction with her guest performers could have just been the icing on this very classy cake, but overall the night was certainly a triumph for Willemijn Verkaik.

Guest reviewer: Francesca Mepham

Let It Be

Savoy Theatre, London

***

Music and lyrics by The Beatles

Directed by John Maher

One year on, Let It Be played to a packed house as it celebrated the anniversary of its arrival in the West End. It's a simply conceived show, presenting The Beatle's greatest hits, performed live and to an exceptional standard. Where other "juke-box musicals" have sought to frame a story around a catalog of classic numbers, pure fiction in Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You, history in Jersey Boys, Let It Be makes a bold move as a production by dropping all narrative whatsoever, it's simply songs.

The programme informs us the actors on stage are selected from a group of possible performers, but it's not until the final bow that we are told who's who on the night. This leads to a sterility of connection between audience and cast as the identities of the performers are withheld until the final bow. There is no spontaneity and the occasional asides from the on-stage Fab Four are scripted from actual utterances and delivered with pinpoint synchronicity that allows the (impressive) lights and techno to seamlessly flow together. It's every inch a packaged, manufactured show that is based upon a band that was anything but manufactured. If you are seeking a story of The Beatles you'll need to look elsewhere.

But as a technical piece of performance and stagecraft, this show is excellent. Four actor-musos with an additional keyboards wizard upstage, reproduce The Beatles' sound almost perfectly. No easy feat when one considers that the entire English speaking world has the band's songs in their DNA and judging by the Japanese contingent in the audience, grinning in delight through nearly all of the show, quite possibly the rest of the world too! The vocals and music are magnificent and whilst the programme shamefully doesn't credit a Wigs Designer someone somewhere has clearly done a fantastic job, with the boys looking fantastic as they age convincingly through the songs.

Opening with I Saw Her Standing There the authentic recreation of the band's sound is astonishing. Memorable on the night were James Fox's Paul McCartney on piano giving a surprisingly moving Yesterday, along with projected video backdrops for both A Day In The Life and While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Let It Be is more juke-box than juke-box musical. You don't have to wait long between numbers as they are virtually incessant. The show is undoubtedly a quality offering, but it's little more than a well crafted trip down memory lane. For foreign visitors struggling with the English language, the show makes for a safe and rather lovely visit to the theatre. It's a nod to the 60s and a celebration of a national culture that's as emphatically English as Shakespeare. If you are after an onstage performance of a CD compilation album, then shows don't get much better than this.

Now booking into 2014 at the Savoy Theatre.