★★★★

“Mark Sanders, in the mantle of Freddie Mercury, knows how to get the audience on his side”

The test of a tribute act is to close your eyes and see if, in your head, it’s the real thing. I don’t get this from “Radio Gaga”. There’s something missing.

I miss the exquisite power and the soaring fragility of Freddie Mercury’s inimitable voice. I miss Freddie’s virtuosity at the piano. I miss the tear-wringing poignancy of the ballads. I miss Bowie’s contribution to the familiar and famous duet, ‘Under Pressure’. I miss the falsetto, the mastery of his stagecraft. His personality.

I’m missing a lot. But (and it is a big ‘but’) I’m missing the point. The crammed audience that fills the West End auditorium have no such qualms. I’m beginning to feel like a killjoy. A nit-picking one at that. I need to shed the grand, proscenium-arched sensibilities, and reimagine the context. To join in with the hand waving, the swaying, and the handclapping. To give an animated response to the repeated questions from the lead singer concerning our health (yes – I am feeling good… how many times?). There are an awful lot of call and response ‘yeah-yeahs’, that by the third number in we are beginning to feel “Under Pressure” to have a good time.

Which is, essentially, what this show is all about. The hits are all there, proficiently performed. ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ comes fairly early on in the proceedings, but already the crowd have no inclination to anyway. Mark Sanders, in the mantle of Freddie Mercury, knows how to get the audience on his side. It didn’t matter that the entire set list needed to be transposed quite a few semitones for Sanders’ voice (okay – a little bit of a white lie. It mattered to me but, as I’ve said, I’m the stick-in-the-mud exception here). When the guys on stage are enjoying themselves, inevitably the groundlings will too. I was up in the Gods, but closer up I guess we could have seen the tongue in Sanders’ cheek. There are no pretentions. After introducing the band, he turned on himself in a lovely moment of irony by referencing his uncanny resemblance to Basil Fawlty.

The band are tremendous, though inevitably more generic and lacking the individualism of the original (here we go – nit-picking again). Richard Ashford, in Brian May’s shoes (white trainers obviously) gave his fretboard a run for its money. Perhaps May has copyrighted his specific sound and Ashford isn’t allowed to replicate it too closely, but the technique is still a close match. Throughout, Sanders seemed to be signalling to the sound crew to up Ashford’s sound level, and that of keyboard player Ben Parkinson; whose flourishes were often missed.

Completing the line up are Michael “Roger Taylor” Richards on drums and Jon “John Deacon” Caulton on bass: the backbone driving the hits that roll out. ‘Somebody to Love’, ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, ‘Killer Queen’, ‘Seven Seas of Rye’, ‘I Want to Break Free’ (complete with vacuum cleaner and comic drag), ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’, ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’, ‘The Show Must Go On’… you name it. And a few lesser-known numbers as well. Of course, the climax is ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ which unfortunately showcased Sanders’ vocal limitations. He let the audience do most of the work. But, again, I seem to be the only one who cares. The band wandered off mid song (not even Queen attempted this live, so fair do’s) to let the operatic section play out on a backing track. They returned to launch back into the finale, albeit on the (very) offbeat.

‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are the Champions’ comprised the encore. During the latter, Sanders dons a crown. The audience’s unanimous verdict is that he has earned it. Freddie Mercury was once asked how he would like to be remembered. ‘You can do what you want with my music’ he said, ‘but don’t make it boring. “Radio GaGa” must have listened.

AN EVENING OF BURLESQUE at the Adelphi Theatre

★★★★

“The flame haired Ivy Paige hosts, with an assured and well-worn flamboyance”

When ‘Burlesque’ was imported from the United States in the mid nineteenth century it was designed for an exclusively male audience, with its bawdy content and exposed flesh. Raids by the police, prompted by offended citizens, were not uncommon. By the 1940s it had lost popularity, but over the last twenty or so years it has come back with a bang. At the forefront of this resurgence is the seemingly never-ending tour of “An Evening of Burlesque”, which stopped off in London’s West End for one night only.

Burlesque’s audience has widened beyond recognition as the art form has slipped into the mainstream, shedding much of its risqué reputation as swiftly as a sequined corset. Still a far cry from becoming family entertainment, its move into thousand-plus seater venues is bound to soften its edges. Luckily, many of the company members of “An Evening of Burlesque” have large enough personalities to bridge the distance between performer and audience as they dish up their blend of cabaret, comedy, music, vaudeville; and the occasional misbehaving tassel.

The flame haired Ivy Paige hosts, with an assured and well-worn flamboyance. When she dips into chanteuse mode, her rich vocals offer some of the highlights of the evening, but she never wants to steal the show, preferring to sashay aside and let her guests do the entertaining. First up is femme fatale Belle de Beauvoir, dependably personifying the genre – it was only after interval that her Belle Epoque sassiness was truly exposed. Similarly, the powerhouse that is Velvet Jones was struggling to stand out from the crowd, even if her costume could probably be picked up by satellite. So far the evening is being painted by numbers, a feeling that even Isabella Bliss – in her Marilyn Monroe guise – does little to dispel.

“As the variety creeps in our misgivings seep out, leaving space for us to sit back and have fun”

But as the show shapeshifts to fill the venue, finally reaching out onto the far corners, the magic is eventually conjured. Sebastian Angelique commands the stage in a blaze. A true ‘showboy’, he plays with fire. Literally so. He eats it too, by the way. He incorporates into his act a thrilling affirmation that Burlesque is no longer the preserve of the fairer sex. By now the audience is ignited, which Saucy Davis Jr. doesn’t dampen with his velvet jacket and velvet voice and incredible tap-dancing feet – capturing the styles of Fred and Ginger, Sammy Davis Jr, Gene Kelly and the Nicholas Brothers in the space of a minute. We want more but he has other assets he wants to show us too.

Isabella Bliss returns to the stage, sans Monroe personage. Bigged up big time by Paige, expectations are ever so slightly beyond her reach, until her finale which is pure, parodic pastiche. Over-the-top and gorgeous. Exactly what we want. Meanwhile, though, if we can rewind a bit, guest star Christian Lee – Britain’s Got Talent finalist – closes the first act with his unique blend of magic, illusion and laugh-out-loud comedy. And, of course, audience participation, which is par for the course. Beware if you find yourself in the front few rows. The warning extends to the performers too. In particular Matt Pang who probably wishes he had brought somebody else up on stage to help him with his gravity defying escapology act. A brilliant performance, perhaps enhanced by the ad-lib comedy Pang brought forth from the near disaster.

Interweaving the acts are the L’Sheila Showgirls who transport us back to the heady days of Variety. “An Evening of Burlesque” is a show that reminds us that Burlesque isn’t just about striptease. In fact, the standout moments are indeed those where clothes are kept on. The evening begins with the worry that all we’ll see are similar ways in which a glove or a stocking can be removed. But that’s just a tease. As the variety creeps in our misgivings seep out, leaving space for us to sit back and have fun. Which is what it is all about. A real crowd-pleaser: classy and sassy.

Tag Archives: Adelphi Theatre

Radio Gaga

★★★★

Adelphi Theatre

RADIO GAGA at the Adelphi Theatre

★★★★

“Mark Sanders, in the mantle of Freddie Mercury, knows how to get the audience on his side”

RADIO GAGA at the Adelphi Theatre

Reviewed on 14th November 2023

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Pawel Spolnicki

Previously reviewed at this venue:

An Evening Of Burlesque | ★★★★ | October 2023

Back To The Future | ★★★★ | October 2021

Radio Gaga

Radio Gaga

Click here to read all our latest reviews

An Evening of Burlesque

★★★★

Adelphi Theatre

AN EVENING OF BURLESQUE at the Adelphi Theatre

★★★★

“The flame haired Ivy Paige hosts, with an assured and well-worn flamboyance”

“As the variety creeps in our misgivings seep out, leaving space for us to sit back and have fun”