Apollo Theatre, London – 24 May 2021
Reviewed by Liberty Noke
5*****
After months of theatres being closed the Apollo theatre brings us a wonderful celebration of theatre and the arts playing to a reduced capacity audience. This was the first in a series of concerts featuring different performers every month and raising money for the charity Acting for Others. The events will also be live streamed so that viewers can watch from home. The stage was set with a four-piece band stage right, a microphone stand centre stage and 6 chairs around a coffee table stage left. Greg Barnett, the host for the evening, opened the show with a song and introduced the musicians as well as the performers- Aimie Atkinson, Cassidy Janson, Lucie Jones, Cedric Neal and Julian Ovenden.
The whole show was rather informal with the performers talking casually about their previous musical theatre roles, upcoming projects, musical inspirations and how they came to be in theatre. Greg Barnett was very charismatic, engaging the performers in conversation and the audience felt included in the conversation as the performers bantered with each other, sharing witty anecdotes from their careers.
Despite the informal nature of the show every musical number was spectacular exactly as you would expect from 5 such talented singers. The performers took it in turns to perform songs including a few duets and group performances. It was a lovely selection of classic musical theatre songs from musicals such as ‘Annie Get Your Gun’, songs from more recent musicals such as ‘Waitress’ and pop songs including Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’. They would often share their reason for choosing to perform each song and Cedric Neal had the audience moved when he discussed being rejected for a role in Kinky Boots but choosing to perform a song from that musical anyway. Aimie Atkinson’s performance of ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’ from ‘Funny Girl’ was breathtaking and Julian Ovenden’s deep, operatic voice gave me chills during every one of his songs. A highlight of the evening was Lucie Jones singing ‘She Used To Be Mine’ from ‘Waitress’ She sang beautifully with so much emotion.
The show closed with Aimie Atkinson, Cassidy Janson and Lucie Jones performing ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ from ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ A beautiful rendition as all 3 singers have such amazing voices and quite emotional as this song had been used throughout the lockdown to provide hope to those quarantining and lift spirits. Overall a fantastic show and the perfect return to the theatre. This reminded me why I love musical theatre and left me looking forward to the reopening of theatres across the UK.