Tag Archives: Liam Tamne

Unlimited: The Songs Of Stephen Schwartz

★★★★

Online via Thespie

Unlimited: The Songs Of Stephen Schwartz

Unlimited: The Songs Of Stephen Schwartz

Online via Thespie

Reviewed – 13th December 2020

★★★★

 

“All nine performers deliver fantastic performances that are a testament to their infectious love of musical theatre.”

 

The concert begins with Stephen Schwartz himself, singing at a piano. He introduces this evening of his songs, and says how much he misses live theatre. This sets the tone for an hour that is a true ode to theatre and to musical theatre more specifically. The cast sing songs from across his canon of musicals, duets, trios and solos. Each performer has been part of the Wicked cast at some point over the years it has run. The songs are interspersed by moments where the cast interview each other, reminiscing about favourite roles and songs to sing, and sharing what the theatre means to them.

In a wonderfully grand venue, eight of them sit socially distanced with pianist and Musical Director Nick Barstow sitting behind a grand piano, ready to accompany them! It is such a joy to see so many fantastic singers and performers together. I mean this both in the sense of seeing them sing together, the soaring duets and powerful trios. But also in the sense of seeing them sit together, watching each other perform, supporting and appreciating each other. Community is something that comes up as a theme in the interviews and this feels like a visual representation of the community that theatre offers and creates.

The videography and editing by Jake Waby and Christian Abad for JW Productions is an example of how to produce digital content right. Sarah Sendell’s sound design is equally strong and we are able to enjoy the strength of all these singers in perfect quality.

The concert begins with a trio from the musical ‘Pippin’, and Alexia Khadime sings the first solo number of the evening – a stunning rendition of ‘I Guess I’ll Miss the Man’. Alice Fearn and Liam Tamne come together to sing a beautiful duet from ‘Pocahontas’, and their ranges compliment each other flawlessly.

Dianne Pilkington sings a compelling solo, and Melanie La Barrie’s performance from the bar is wonderful. ‘For Good’ from Wicked is an emotional end to the concert, sung by Nikki Bentley, Sophie Evans, Alice Fearn, Alexia Khadime and Dianne Pilkington.

All nine performers deliver fantastic performances that are a testament to their infectious love of musical theatre.

 

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

Photography by Aimie Atkinson 

 


Unlimited: The Songs Of Stephen Schwartz

Online via Thespie

 

Recently reviewed by Amelia:
I Will Still Be Whole (When You Rip Me In Half) | ★★★★ | The Bunker | November 2019
My White Best Friend And Even More Letters Best Left Unsaid | ★★★★ | The Bunker | November 2019
Potted Panto | ★★★★ | Southwark Playhouse | December 2019
The Girl With Glitter in Her Eye | ★★½ | The Bunker | January 2020
Essence | ★★½ | The Vaults | February 2020
Flights | ★★★½ | Omnibus Theatre | February 2020
Maliphantworks3 | ★★★★★ | The Coronet Theatre | February 2020
Globaleyes | ★★★★ | Online | September 2020
First Date | ★★★ | Online | October 2020
A Christmas Carol | ★★★★ | Watermill Theatre Newbury | December 2020

 

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The Prince of Egypt

★★★★

Dominion Theatre

The Prince of Egypt

The Prince of Egypt

Dominion Theatre

Reviewed – 25th February 2020

★★★★

 

“With its creative and production heft, this will undoubtably be around a long time”

 

Born in ancient Egypt and delivered via an unconventional route, this new work from the creators of Wicked (Dreamwork Theatricals) arrives kicking and ululating in the mighty palace of London’s Dominion Theatre. Having first been an animated feature film, this is the story of Moses told with a lot less religion and a lot more bromance, tracking the relationship between young Ramses and his foundling sibling as they grow close, then apart, then further apart.

A thrillingly executed chariot race kicks off an evening of peerless creative arts, from choreography to video projections, from wardrobe to set design. Then, as Ramses (Liam Tamne) steps up to fill the Pharaonic boots of his father Seti (Joe Dixon), Moses heads the other way down the pecking order, by falling for an enslaved dancer, Tzipporah (Christine Allado). Exile ensues as he pursues her into the embrace of the desert-based Midianites, a blissful commune lead by the genial Jethro (Gary Wilmot) who teach him how to dance in 5/4 time. After meeting up with his previously lost family, in particular sister Miriam (Alexia Khadime), Moses realises his identity and takes up the cause of those Hebrew slaves still slogging themselves to death on Ramses’ pyramids.

Enslaved to an unwieldy source, the script by Philip LaZebnik suffers under the strain, with wars and plagues, exile and deliverance having to be explained through the eyes of two brothers in the few gaps between 25 musical numbers. With so much work to do in a small space of time, some lines edge beyond parody. “Moses!! I haven’t seen you in a long time” says Rameses as if spotting a mate in McDonald’s when Moses returns from exile to let his people go. “How did you let the people go?” complains High Priest Hotep (Adam Pearce) as if the multitude escaping was equivalent to losing your Oyster card. However, it does the job of keeping the action and effects speeding along, especially in the second half with plagues being visited with exhilarating brevity. Hotep is no sooner popping open his vestal top to reveal boils than meteors are descending on the backdrop. But this is all, as intended, creating a thundering, crowd-pleasing display, that bears little analysis (should we really applaud a plague?) but gives excellent opportunity for some impressive visuals. The design team in particular (Kevin Depinet’s set, Mike Billings’ lighting, Jon Driscoll’s projections and Chris Fisher’s illusions) create spectacular landscapes, pyramid interiors and Red Sea partings.

Great effort too has gone into Stephen Schwarz’ reworking of his own score. Best known for Wicked and Godspell, here his music and lyrics wrestle absorbingly with the constraints of Egyptian-sounding cadences (courtesy of Hollywood’s biblical blockbusters) and lilting Yiddish melodies, while blending in some old school rock opera and, inevitably, the saccharine sound of Disney Musicals. The cast is universally highly competent as you might expect, the dancers all limb-perfect in service of Sean Cheesman’s superb choreography. With the two leads perhaps lacking enough contrast, only Alexia Khadime truly soars vocally, but Christine Allado and Gary Wilmot join her in managing to project a third dimension to their originally two-dimensional characters. With its creative and production heft, this will undoubtably be around a long time, but doesn’t have the heart of a Lion King.

 

Reviewed by Dominic Gettins

Photography by Tristram Kenton

 

 

The Prince of Egypt

Dominion Theatre until September 12th

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Big The Musical | ★★½ | September 2019

 

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