Grand Opera House York – until Saturday 27th January 2018. Reviewed by Michelle Richardson
4****
This is the extraordinary tale of an ordinary girl from Liverpool, plain Priscilla White, who went on to become one of Britain’s best-loved entertainers, Cilla Black. Most of us knew her either from her music or from tv, most notably Blind Date and Surprise Surprise. The musical follows Cilla’s rise to stardom from typist to star, focusing on her personal life and the two men, Bobby Willis and Brian Epstein, who were fundamental to her success. We are treated to various hits from the 60’s, not just from Cilla but from the Beatles, the Mamas and Papas and Gerry and the Pacemakers.
We see how she grew up in Liverpool, frequenting the Cavern Club, listening to the Big Three before being asked to sing with them. We see her friendship with the Beatles and Lennon’s nickname of Cyril for her, before being introduced to their manager Brian Epstein, and like the saying goes, the rest is history.
Kara Lily Hayworth was selected for the role of the legendary Cilla, beating thousands of actresses to land the iconic part, and I can certainly understand why, she delivered a show-stopping performance that at times sent quivers down my spine, her singing was that powerful. Carl Au also delivers a great performance as Cilla’s husband Bobby, completely and blindly devoted to her, sacrificing his own chances. Au is quite mesmerizing on stage, I found it quite hard to take my eyes off him and he does a wonderful job in both his acting and singing, which unfortunately is underutilised, rightly so this is about Cilla not Bobby and we are all rooting for Bobby from the get go.
Andrew Lancel gives a knockout performance as Epstein, capturing his, at times, tormented emotions, as well as portraying him as a true gentleman. This is highlighted when Lennon, played superbly by Michael Hawkins, sings You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, dedicated to Epstein because of his sexuality and his penchant for “nasty boys” (who like to rob and beat him up). In the second half Lancel’s rendition of the song is heart wrenching. The story ends with Epstein’s death and the start of Cilla’s long television career.
The staging and costumes perfectly encapsulate the era. The whole cast looked like they were having a good time, and they delivered a great show with great chemistry. The music was superb, I especially loved the Beatles music, but I am a bit biased there, I used to listen to all my mum’s old Beatles records when I was a teenager, and you cannot beat their music even to this day. The real highlight of the show for me though was Hayworth’s rendition of Anyone Who Had a Heart.
It was fantastic to see such a packed theatre with everyone enjoying themselves. A great light-hearted musical to blow those January blues away.