Kings Of Broadway 2020: Celebrating the music of Jule Styne, Jerry Herman and Stephen Sondheim. is available to watch now on YouTube on the Quick Fantastic site.
I don't know - forgive my ignorance - but I have been led to believe that The Kings Of Broadway is an annual event, and this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company has put their concert online. The show is a concert of some of the more famous - and some of the not-so-famous - songs from the three Broadway composer legends Herman, Styne and Sondheim. Each of the evening's guests were asked to sing one song each (with piano accompaniment) and they were recorded in their own homes during isolation.
All of the artistes gave their time and talent for free for this event, as it was a charitable concert raising money for Acting For Others Charity, the NHS Charities Group, and The Black Lives Matter campaign.
A fun intro got the show started, and opening the concert was the only orchestral piece of the evening. A group of extremely talented musicians (again recording in isolation and montaged together in the editing), playing one of Musical Theatre's greatest ever overtures, that of 'Gypsy'.
Alex Parker, our pianist then had his work well and truly cut out as he accompanied every other of the 27 succeeding acts.
The singers were all Musical Theatre professionals from far and wide and although I have to admit to not recognising ALL the names on there, my Google name search after the concert confirmed this for me. The songs came from some 17 musicals, all except one I had knowledge of. So let me talk about that one first! The show was the 1947 MGM Film Musical, 'It Happened In Brooklyn' which starred Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson. I can't find any reference to it ever being made into a stage show, but that didn't matter, the song sung was 'Time After Time' which was written by Jule Styne (lyrics Sammy Cahn), and got Sinatra to number 17 in the US charts. The song was reinterpreted and sung brilliantly here by opera singer Lucy Schaufer. This was actually one of my favourite pieces in the entire concert.
My other favourites from the evening were Emma Kingston's rendition of 'The Greatest Star' from Funny Girl; Jamie Parker and Deborah Crowe's duet, 'Too Many Mornings' from Follies; Jenna Russell singing the plaintive 'I Remember' from Sondheim's Evening Primrose; Celinde Schoenmaker and Laura Pitt Pulford's interesting and delightfully different interpretation of 'Every Day A Little Death' from 'A Little Night Music'; Ramin Karimloo's 'Being Alive' from 'Comapny', and Louise Dearman's pitch perfect and rather un-traditional rendition of 'Losing My Mind' from 'Follies'.
My aboslute favourite of the evening though had to be Michael Colbourne in three different guises (and different facial hair) singing all three parts of 'You Could Drive A Person Crazy' from 'Company'. Hilarious and genius! Just brilliant.
The first half of the concert ended with Guilford Community Theatre's 2018 cast of 'Merrily We Roll Along' singing 'Now You Know' which was a great act one closer. Midway through the second half, many black performers came together (in isolation!) to perform the poem 'And Still I Rise' by Maya Angelou to emphasise the Black Lives Matter movement. And the whole concert finished with The Sainsbury's Choir (Sydenham), singing a socially distanced performance inside Sainsbury's of 'Sunday' from 'Sunday In The Park With George'. A brilliant way to finish the concert.
There were many other performers and Musicals that I haven't mentioned but if you head over to YouTube, it's available to watch (no idea how long it will stay available); and they have a link in there too where you can donate to these three charities.
I have watched quite of lot of this style of concerts now, and some are certainly put together more professionally and with more care than others. This was very professionally edited and presented, and well worth a watch.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 20/6/20
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