I'm Every Woman The Chaka Kahn Musical - Review

Troubadour Theatre, London

**

Written by Nia T. Hill

Directed by Racky Plews

Alexandra Burke

Chaka Kahn (and a number of her contemporaries) amassed a remarkable body of hits in their careers. Beautiful songs with strong messages and in I’m Every Woman at Wembley’s Troubadour Theatre, Alexandra Burke as Kahn smashes a fair few of them out of the park.

But 30 banging songs do not a musical make, and in between Burke’s sensational singing (and equally Sophie Earl’s fabulously fleeting stint as Joni Mitchell) the narrative that links the numbers is brief, shallow and clichéd.

Sandwiched between two glib family therapy sessions, the show delivers a whirl of brief vignettes, poorly linked, outlining Kahn’s career achievements that were peppered by battles with addiction and domestic violence. If only these darknesses had been treated with more artistic sobriety, the messages may have carried more credible impact. Notwithstanding Chaka Kahn’s real-life endorsement of the show, it all just seems at times too crass.

Give Alexandra Burke an unadulterated setlist of Chaka Kahn’s greatest hits supported by Aron Sood's excellent band from Wembley and it could well make for an evening of musical brilliance. As it is, I’m Every Woman needs an awful lot of work.

Runs until 27th September

Photo credit: Danny Kaan