CRITIQUE: Music of the Night concert

by Jan
(Nueva Andalucia)

Music of the Night at the Andalucia Plaza Saturday April 11th 2015

What promised to be a very entertaining evening unfortunately turned out not to be so good.

The cast of five were enthusiastic but the programme was the problem.

Most of the numbers were show ‘fillers’ – the not-so-tuneful but wordy songs which tell the story and connect the showstoppers. At a concert like this it is the well-known ‘big’ numbers that the audience come to hear.

Similarly some years ago Barbra Streisand appeared in London and made the same mistake performing new and less well-known material in the first week. The word came back to her very strongly and the second week she changed the programme completely to include all the songs the audience wanted to hear.

Nancy’s big song from Oliver – ‘As long as he needs me’ was belted out brilliantly – and the audience’s huge response said it all.

The advertising mentioned Easter but the concert was unbalanced with too much from Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell. A couple of operatic arias were thrown in which were out of place here, and the cast have nice voices but are not opera singers.

Flashing lights were used to take the place of any staging, which would have been fine had they not shone towards the audience making us blink as we tried to watch the singers.

Should this review get back to the cast – please understand, I don’t wish to offend, but a change of programme could have resulted in a much more enjoyable concert.

DATE: April 11th