The setting was The Lyceum Theatre in Crewe and the show was Collabro who are on a grand scale tour which finishes at The Royal Albert Hall in April – this is also the name of their latest album released earlier this year. This was my first experience of The Lyceum in Crewe but absolutely not my last – this is a beautiful theatre with a history to match.
It was apparent as I arrived at my seat that there was a support act on before Collabro – at the front of the stage there was a drum kit, a saxophone on a stand and a keyboard. It wasn’t long before we found out that the support act was Georgia And The Vintage Youth – a three piece band with a quirky jazz-like sound. Georgia Crandon, keyboard player and lead singer, is a 20 year old from Essex who has had some airplay recently on Radio 2 and BBC Introducing. She reminded me a little of Paloma Faith, although the band had much more of a jazz lounge vibe.
Georgia Crandon is clearly very talented but perhaps not to my musical taste – and I think therein lies the problem in being the support act for Callabro. I cannot see any crossover with Collabro’s fan base (which I later found out are called “Collaborators”) and as talented as she is, I am not sure she will have gained many fans from this evening.
No sooner had Georgia and her band finished their set, Collabro took to the stage for the first half of their performance. They kicked things off with “Grease Is The Word” which was a great opening track from Matt, Tom, Michael and Jamie – the four lads who make up Collabro. Matt then gave a little preview of what was to come in the show, mentioning that they will be play all of the songs from their recently released album, a few of their favourites from Musical Theatre and finally the promise of a few surprises.
Musical Theatre was definitely a key theme of the first half of the show as we were treated to “As If We Never Said Goodbye” from Sunset Boulevard, “Maria” from West Side Story and “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” from Evita. All were performed impeccably with a real opportunity for the boys to show off their voices – the version of “Maria” was particularly spectacular and I loved the musical arrangement from Ed Rugman.
It is fair to say that Collabro are not just a collection of singers, they have become all round entertainers and this shone through as they took turns speaking to the audience between songs. Some of the jokes looked very well-rehearsed but others just seemed to be ad-libbed. They came across as a bunch of very close friends who absolutely love what they do together on stage.
Lauren Samuels was tonight’s additional act in the show, I believe Kerry Ellis has been on other parts of the tour. Samuels was a contestant on the BBC show 'Over The Rainbow' back in 2010, something she described as the most scary audition she had ever done. Whilst she didn’t win the show back in 2010 she has gone on to appear in the West End in Grease and has toured with We Will Rock You. She sang “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” with such emotion and was pitch perfect throughout.
The first half finished with Collabro’s tribute to The Jersey Boys with a medley of songs that included “Walk Like A Man”, “Sherry”, “Working My Way Back” and “Oh What A Night”. A real upbeat way to head into the interval.
The second half was more of the same from Collabro – they were joined on stage initially with a local school choir who joined them in a couple of songs. “Electricity” from Billy Elliott and more notably a version of Journey’s song “Faithfully”. Collabro then powered their way through the rest of their album and some songs from Les Miserables – their version of “Bring Him Home” was superb, stripped back to the musical basics and the harmonies were incredible.
Collabro also played their only original song “Lighthouse” which was co-written with Ben Adams, they didn’t refer to any future plans for original material but I sincerely hope this is a route they take. The finale to the show was a series of covers from Motown The Musical featuring “Can You Feel It”, “I Want You Back”, “Signed Sealed Delivered” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” – this was a finale that had most of the audience on their feet and dancing. I think it’s fair to say that the vast majority of them went home very happy with this performance from Collabro.
Reviewer - John Fish
on - 22/2/19
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