Dress Circle Benefit - One Year On - A Review

Her Majesty's Theatre, London

*****

Today, sadly, Dress Circle, a wonderful store dedicated to all things Musical Theatre, closes its doors.

Many months ago, when closure was first signalled, two dedicated young actors James Yeoburn and Stuart Matthew Price, almost Blues Brothers like, put together a show that culminated in a glorious August 2011 evening at Her Majestys Theatre that was a stunning line up of the West End's finest.

I reviewed the show then, but it has not been until now that my review , which had been lost, has now re-surfaced. Its a pleasure and an honour to re-post it. The store was amazing, and the evening was stellar.

JG

Remember The Blues Brothers, on a mission from God, to save the orphanage they grew up in?

Fast forward 30 ( ok, almost 33...) odd years,  swap the orphanage for Dress Circle, and replace Jake and Elwood Blues  with Stuart Matthew Price and James Yeoburn, and you start to get close to the magic of the Gala concert that graced the stage at Her Majestys

The one thing that both that movie and the Gala had in common was the most outstanding line up of artistes, wishing to be associated with the project.

Simon Lee had rehearsed his 30 piece orchestra to perfection – listening to them, it was hard to believe that this was the first public performance of that ensemble, and that they were not in fact performing that set together 8 times a week.

Without exception ALL the performers on stage were outstanding.

For this writer, though the "ultra-stellar" moments of such an evening, came from those rare moments when the persona of the actor got so wrapt within the performance, that they were truly giving of their soul.

Rebecca Caine sang Think of Me 25 years after her on-stage Christine.  An operatic  performance of crystal delivery, that as she herself tweeted  "I was so overwhelmed by the emotion and ovation I nearly cried. It was like a wall of sound hitting me". With Frances Ruffelle too, spines tingled as A Heart Full of Love was recreated with Jon Robyns.

Then there was the Ellen Greene moment. Ellen was listed in the programme as singing Between, from Betwixt, in the first half. She was great. What the audience did not realise was that she had actually been expecting ( and rehearsing ) to sing Somewhere That’s Green, from Little Shop of Horrors having gone to the effort of having her Audrey wig flown over to London specially for the song.  So when Aled Jones, the evening’s host, interrupted the second half, to introduce this unlisted addition to the evening, the audience went wild .

When that song was first recorded Greene's voice had a wonderful almost hallmark fragility to it. Now, some 25 years later ( and perhaps following the tragic death of Howard Ashman?) singing the song was hard. As Ellen sang, she struggled in what what was clearly a difficult moment. But in a defining expression of excellence, she pulled the performance back, and as the bars rolled by she didn’t just sing the song, she positively nailed it.  On the final notes, as the audience almost to a man rose to salute her,  she wept.  To witness such a performance was more than a joy, it was a privilege.

Dougal Irvine and Laurence Mark Wythe delivered their specially composed number for the night, The World of The Show, that not only evoked the wit of Noel Coward, but also left one confident that the future of British musical theatre composition is in safe hands.

The penultimate number , Bui Doi from Miss Saigon had the inimitable Peter Polycarpou reprising the role of John that he created, backed by a youthful chorus of current West End professionals , again raising the hairs on the back of my neck.

To quote Oliver, could I have possibly asked for more from an evening of such riches? Well to my mind, a nod to Rogers & Hammerstein and Kander & Ebb would not have been out of place, nor would the acknowledgment perhaps of the current contribution of Juke Box Musicals to the strength of current West End / Broadway box office takings. Whilst the trend for JBMs is arguably blocking the path for new writing, those shows do nonetheless, and on a weekly basis, provide musical theatre entertainment for thousands and further, employment for hundreds more. But these greedy comments of mine are mere bagatelles when set against the wonder that was presented on stage last Sunday.

As Sardines Magazine commented " … make no mistake, there was not one person on that stage that did not shine " and as a foundation for an annual ( or  biennial at least ? ) event, Messrs Price and Yeoburn have created a precedent that will be nigh on impossible to live up to.

 

 

A Spotlight on Stevie Webb - Review

****
This review was originally written for The Public Reviews

January 26 2012

By popular demand Steven Webb, accompanied by some wonderfully talented friends, returned to the Landor Theatre to perform his “A Spotlight On..” evening , first aired ten days earlier. The intimate venue was packed with Webb’s friends and colleagues lending a genuinely relaxed air to an evening of songs that were as emotionally charged as they were beautifully performed.

Webb opened his set with “How Do You Know ‘Til You Try Me (Which You Haven’t and You Should)?” from Betwixt. Punchily delivered , and with able accompaniment from Steve Edis, it set the tone. Throughout the evening the singer possibly spent as much time re-telling anecdotes and stories as singing, but in the company of so many of Steven’s friends, the stories took on a mixture of warmth, tenderness, as well as at times outright blokey banter. At 28, the fact that he has already been performing professionally for 20 years is a remarkable achievement and Webb spoke appreciatively of the sacrifices his Wirral-based parents made to support him as a precocious 8 year old, making his West End debut as Oliver.

Steven selected not only songs from shows that he had performed in , but also songs that he enjoyed. With the talented Sarah Lark, he performed “Music of the Night” taking the familiar classic and re-working it to a beautifully harmonised duet. Later in the show, again with Miss Lark, with a nod to Betwixt he delivered a tribute to Ellen Greene with “Suddenly, Seymour” cheekily re-worded to “Suddenly Stevie”.

There is a symbiotic relationship between writers and singers at the moment ( was it ever thus?) with the young talent of the country writing and performing on each other’s albums with almost incestuous frequency. Nonetheless, it is a tribute to Webb that not only Chris Passey, Webb’s excellent MD, but also Dougal Irvine were there to perform at each of the Landor nights, with Irvine even joking of Webb’s apparent “residency” at the theatre. Both of these writers have included the singer in the launch events for their recent albums, and these performances were reprised. From Irvine’s album Acoustic Overtures, Webb sung the piercingly perceptive “Simple”, and from Passey’s Self Taught, Still Learning, he delivered the powerful number “Room for Me” . Both songs allowed Webb to immerse himself in their performance, giving each number a raw and human emotion. Irvine’s Departure Lounge had provided Webb with his return to musical theatre two years ago, and the close vocal harmony of the writer, also on guitar, dueting with Webb in “Do You Know What I Think Of You” was exquisite, Webb catching the bitter frustrations of a soured friendship with painful poignancy.

Elsewhere in the evening, Webb included a heartfelt tribute to Etta James, with “At Last”, and a song, written for him by Passey, and touchingly dedicated to his mother “From Your Loving Arms”
The show closed with an absolute treat. A song rarely if ever heard live, the bonus track from the Departure Lounge album “We Rule The World” , that had been dropped from the London production of the show. In a powerful and perfect 4 part harmony, Webb, Lark, Irvine and Passey united on stage to again move the audience with the perceptive intensity of a superbly crafted song, stunningly performed.

When Webb spoke of friendship, to an audience that included many of his friends, he spoke with honesty and openness – both of which virtues are manifest in all his performances, and evidence of why, at his young age, he is already such a gifted and accomplished performer. He remains a talent to follow and enjoy.