Category Archive

‘Charmingly quirky’: Amélie The Musical ★★★★★ (Album review)

In Albums, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Emma Clarendon29th June 2020Leave a Comment

This charmingly quirky musical is captured wonderfully on this newly released cast recording.

‘A stunning look back at our musical past’: One Voice by Siobhan Dillon ★★★★ (Album review)

In Albums, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Jonathan Baz5th June 2020Leave a Comment

Dillon rose to public prominence in 2006, competing in TV’s How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? and from there has gone on to leading roles in musical theatre. Away from the spotlight, recent years have seen the singer win her own very private battle with cancer.

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‘There’s a fresh sprightliness to so much of the music that’s hard to resist’: RAGS – The Musical (Album review)

In Albums, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Ian Foster25th May 2020Leave a Comment

Sometimes a musical just doesn’t grab you, and so it was for me with Rags The Musical. The universe clearly wants me to hear it one way or another though, as Ghostlight Records are now releasing an official London cast recording.

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‘A strong debut with a smoky late-night vibe’: One Voice by Siobhan Dillon (Album review)

In Albums, Features, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Louise Penn10th May 2020Leave a Comment

‘For the first time in my life, I feel truly vulnerable when I am singing these songs. It’s terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.’

West End performer Siobhan Dillon’s new album, One Voice, released earlier this month…

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‘They all spent time in Bat Out of Hell’s Obsidian’: The Songsmiths – Tenors of the West End (Album review)

In Albums, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Ian Foster9th May 2020Leave a Comment

Vocal group The Songsmiths’ Tenors of the West End offers up some fascinating harmonies on some classic pop tunes.

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‘The top-notch cast sing as if it’s the first time they’re hearing the music’: Les Misérables – The Staged Concert (Online review)

In Albums, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Ian Foster28th April 2020Leave a Comment

Les Misérables – The Staged Concert is released on digital download, along with a bonus featurette which is highly amusing.

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‘An immensely powerful listen’: THE PRINCE OF EGYPT (Album review) ★★★★

In Albums, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Emma Clarendon14th April 2020Leave a Comment

The cast recording of West End musical The Prince of Egypt allows the orchestra and ensemble as well as the leading cast to shine.

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‘When You Believe has a choral majesty that is undeniable’: THE PRINCE OF EGYPT (Album review)

In Albums, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Ian Foster11th April 2020Leave a Comment

There was a moment in the last couple of days as I listened to ‘Make It Right’ for the umpteenth time that I wondered whether I’d been a bit harsh to The Prince of Egypt when it opened in late February.

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CD REVIEW: Pretty Woman the Musical – Original Broadway Cast Recording

In Albums, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews, Ticket recommendations by Emma Clarendon27th January 2020Leave a Comment

Overall the original Broadway cast recording of Pretty Woman the Musical retains the spirit of the original story but also makes it soar higher thanks to the high quality of the music and lyrics.

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Broadway Album Reviews: The New Yorkers, Kiss Me, Kate! & Beetlejuice

In Albums, Audio, Broadway, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Ian Foster5th January 2020Leave a Comment

Ought To Be Clowns tackles a trio of Broadway cast recordings in the shape of Cole Porter’s The New Yorkers, Kiss Me, Kate! and Beetlejuice.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Lea Michele – Christmas in the City

In Albums, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Ian Foster26th November 2019Leave a Comment

Jonathan Groff and Darren Criss elevate Glee star Lea Michele’s first holiday album Christmas in the City.

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ALBUM REVIEW: RE:arrangement – An Album by Nick Barstow

In Albums, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Ian Foster25th November 2019Leave a Comment

A musical theatre album with a difference, RE:arrangement – An Album by Nick Barstow is refreshingly bold.

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CD REVIEW: Luke Evans – At Last

In Albums, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Ian Foster23rd November 2019Leave a Comment

Luke Evans’ debut album At Last is full of emphatic pop covers and his powerful voice at full stretch, not always a winning combination.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Jon Robyns – Musical Direction

In Albums, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Ian Foster29th October 2019Leave a Comment

I’ve long admired Jon Robyns and his new album Musical Direction reflects on his career so far beautifully, as well as suggesting what fun lies ahead.

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CD REVIEW: My Fair Lady 2018 Cast Recording ★★★★★

In Albums, International, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Emma Clarendon28th June 2019Leave a Comment

Broadway’s current production’s cast recording brings Alan Jay Lerner and Fredrick Loewe’s glorious score for My Fair Lady beautifully to life.

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CD Review: Company 2018 London cast / Follies 2018 National Theatre cast

In Albums, Audio, Features, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Edward Seckerson14th June 2019Leave a Comment

We should celebrate the fact that within the space of a year London has played host to stagings of not one but two Sondheim masterpieces that have all but redefined them in theatrical terms: Company and Follies.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Justine Balmer – Simple Thing

In Albums, Audio, Classical music, Opinion, Reviews by Ian Foster10th June 2019Leave a Comment

From Coldplay to Claude Debussy, crossover soprano Justine Balmer’s debut album Simple Thing is a collection of songs that work well together.

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ALBUM REVIEWS: Matthew Croke’s Only Dreaming & Anna O’Byrne’s Dream

In Albums, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Ian Foster30th May 2019Leave a Comment

A pair of dreamy album reviews with Matthew Croke’s Only Dreaming & Anna O’Byrne’s Dream.

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MISSED THE BOAT: Hadestown

In Albums, Audio, Broadway, Features, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Debbie Gilpin10th May 2019Leave a Comment

I’m not quite sure how I managed to miss Hadestown at the National Theatre before it transferred to Broadway, where it has picked up 14 Tony Award nominations.

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Album Review: Girlfriends – London Musical Theatre Orchestra ★★★★

In Albums, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Emma Clarendon23rd April 2019Leave a Comment

Musically, Girlfriends is a richly diverse score that is beautifully delivered by the London Musical Theatre Orchestra and the cast performances on this album.

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GRAMOPHONE Review: Shostakovich Symphony No. 11 ‘The Year 1905’ – BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Storgårds

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Each time I hear the opening of this symphony – in filmic terms a long slow pan across the frozen forecourt of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg – I immediately think of countless grainy black and white documentaries depicting war and revolution, though not necessarily the one invoked here from ‘the year 1905’. It’s the programatic nature of the 11th Symphony that has prompted negative criticism over the years, ‘filmic’ being used as a term of denigration.

But time has revealed a masterpiece of sorts where the ‘directness’ of expression and more especially the use of revolutionary songs as thematic leitmotifs goes to the very heart of powerful protest – the resistance of state repression whenever and wherever it shows itself. The long cor anglais solo at the heart of the finale – channelling the revolutionary song ‘Bare Your Heads’ – might possibly be the single most profound utterance in all Shostakovich.

This is a resounding performance – and a timely reminder of the same team’s triumph with the piece at last year’s Proms – but more significantly it is a searching, very inward reading, too. John Storgards favours an expansive wide-screen approach underlining the work’s theatricality and lending the big set pieces an implacable power. I’m thinking immediately of the graphic ‘Bloody Sunday’ massacre sequence in the second movement (much beloved of documentary film makers) – the dogged, relentless fugue exploding into a brutal tattoo for the entire percussion battery. The sequence encourages a variety of approaches – a dramatic speeding up or slowing down as the percussion let rip – but Storgards keeps his deliberate tempo emphatically and remorselessly on course throughout the whole sequence emphasising the pitiless machine-like brutality of it. Especially telling are the rising chromatic grimaces in the trombones as the Tsar’s forces menacingly confront the peaceful protest. Scarifying.

The slow movement – ‘In Memoriam’ – contains one of the most transformative moments in the entire Shostakovich symphonic canon and that’s the major key modulation into what would be the opening words of the revolutionary song ‘You Fall As a Victim’ – ‘Welcome the free world of liberty’ – radiant in the violins. Storgards and the BBC Philharmonic strings make something quite special of this – a moment of hope and light amidst the surrounding darkness.

Last (but very much not least) the tolling bells of the closing pages and the biggest question of all ‘for whom do they toll’. For this performance – and for the aforementioned Prom date where they thrillingly rang out from the belfry of the Royal Albert Hall – Storgards and the orchestra deploy four church bells (on loan from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic), to tremendous effect: an invocation at once ominous and exultant and defiant. Strogards lets them ring on after the final chord a la Rostropovich – the one thing here I’m not entirely convinced by. For me the abrupt cut-off is more overtly dramatic. Still, a terrific performance and a terrific sounding disc.

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