Review - West End Women (Cadogan Hall)

It may only be February, but 2019 is already looking set to be an amazing year for musical theatre, with Broadway showstoppers like Waitress, Come From Away and Dear Evan Hansen on the horizon, and home-grown musicals such as Six and the recently announced & Juliet making waves too. Aside from showcasing the breadth of the musical theatre genre, this theatrical line-up shares one other notable trait; they all feature an assortment of strong female characters in their ranks. And what better way to celebrate this vital leap in the right direction than a look back at almost 100 years of women in musical theatre?

 

Enter West End Women, Lambert Jackson Productions’ one-night-only celebration of some of musical theatre’s most memorable female characters, brought to life by an assortment of musical theatre superstars. 

 

The cast of West End Women
Photo credit - Michael Xavier

Headlining the concert were Rachel John, Lauren Samuels and Celinde Schoenmaker, three of the West End’s most dependable, versatile and spectacularly talented names. All three were given plenty of chances to shine in solo and group numbers. Rachel John delivered a hair raising rendition of Summertime from Porgy and Bess, whilst Lauren Samuels performed Never Enough from the 2017 hit film The Greatest Showman, and former The Phantom of the Opera star Celinde Schoenmaker revisited the mega musical to treat audiences to its ingénue Christine Daae’s star-making aria Think of Me.

Not only was West End Women a stunning showcase for the talents of its headlining performers, it also shone a spotlight on the stars of the future. Several up-and-coming musical theatre voices were on display, including Lauren Shields, Kayla Carter and Martha Boon, who opened the concert’s second act with Chicago’s vicious Cell Block Tango, Brady Isaacs who commanded the stage singing A Piece of Sky from Yentl, and Talia Robens, whose rendition of Everything I Know from In The Heights was a striking tearjerker.

 

The students of MX Masterclass, West End favourite Michael Xavier’s musical theatre training school, were equally impressive, bringing buckets of energy and pizazz to Blow Gabriel Blow from Anything Goes and America from West Side Story, accompanied by a peppy orchestra under the baton of Adam Hoskins.

Despite the omission of several famous female-led musicals, West End Women was a magical musical theatre celebration. The concept was solid, the performances were uniformly faultless, and the audience was left tapping their toes at the joyful and empowering finale, I’m A Woman!

Review - Girlfriends in Concert (Bishopsgate Institute)

Every November, since the end of World War I, Remembrance Day has been observed, as a tribute to those who served in the armed forces, and way of remembering those who lost their lives. What better time, therefore, for London Musical Theatre Orchestra to revive Howard Goodall's musical Girlfriends, which follows a group of young women plucked from normality and dropped onto the front line as part of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during World War II. 

The cast of Girlfriends in Concert 
Photo credit - Nick Rutter

The musical in concert, which played three performances at Bishopsgate Institute where LMTO is orchestra in residence, featured a large, mostly female, ensemble cast. Heading up the gang of women was Lou and Amy, a couple of pals from home who join the WAAF together. Whilst Lou takes a rather more hopeful view of the experience to begin with, Amy is much less impressed with the rather unglamourous, unforgiving military lifestyle, until Lou introduces her to pilot and self-appointed Errol Flynn lookalike Guy. Lou and Amy were played sweetly by Lucie Jones and Lauren Samuels. Both sang the score beautifully, and perfectly portrayed the youth, inexperience and hopefulness of the young WAAF women they were embodying. Meanwhile, as the love interested who tore Lou and Amy apart, Rob Houchen was vocally spectacular, inflecting his vocals with 40s inspired stylings which helped emphasise the wartime setting. Houchen and Jones' act two duet Remember You Wanted Me was a thrillingly sung high point in the concert.

Outside of the central trio, interesting characters came in all shapes and sizes; young war widow Jane, played by Bronté Barbé, was given a bleak and subtly emotional solo in the form of The Chances Are. Meanwhile Jasmin, a young women from Scotland, soured towards the WAAF and war in general after the death of her brother in action and the denial of her request for leave by her tough leader Woods (a small yet pinnacle role, played with ferocity by Lizzie Wofford). Meanwhile Natasha Barnes and Chris McGuigan played Sally and Gareth, a couple who were drawn to each other out of a need for love against a violent and unforgiving background, where every night could be their last.

The cast of Girlfriends in Concert 
Photo credit - Nick Rutter

The score, which was reworked for the concert by Goodall and Simon Nathan, was extremely evocative of the time period in which the musical was set, and conductor Freddie Tapner brought out the best in a slick orchestra packed with passionate players. A couple of jaunty band numbers such as In the Messes and Clubs offered swinging toe tapping fun. They made a drastic change from the majority of the songs with more swoony swooping melodies, shot through with streaks of wartime panic and paranoia, signalled by repetitive counterpoints and terse, clashy harmonies. The music was spine tingling at times, but did begin to feel rather repetitive. 

Outside of the excellent performances of both the cast and orchestra, Girlfriends was disappointing though. For a musical which touted itself as a celebration of women's contribution to the war effort, the plot very much centred around the men of the story, despite them being outnumbered drastically on stage by a whole host of potentially fascinating female characters. It was rather dispiriting to hear so many songs in which the girls did not much other than moon over the men. The relationships formed between the WAAFs would've been more than sufficiently interesting and enlightening, and so putting a conventional love triangle at the musicals heart felt misjudged. Perhaps this was partially due to the complete lack of book in the concert setting, which may have fleshed out the characters between musical numbers, but whatever the case, it felt like a waste of a brilliant premise.