Musical: Alderman Theatre – Leeds
The best and worst thing about this play is the singing: The singing is beautiful, wonderful, hypnotic, angelic. I’ve never heard human vocal cords make such heavenly sounds before – and I’ve been to over 150 singing events.
Despite my obviously wide spectrum of singing experience I was still absolutely gobsmacked by this performance. If you love singing, and singing exclusively, you’ll love this play.
However there is a darker underbelly to this awe-inducing singing, and that is the fact that you can concentrate on nothing else. And I mean… nothing.
The actors on stage act wonderfully, and yet the perfect song that preceded the moving acting is still reverberating through your ears and soul. A child actor is killed and abused live on stage, and all you can be is thrilled that there is another singing number just around the corner.
The wondrous nature of the singing is so otherworldly I found myself even unable to form a simple vital thought during the performance – a thought such as “I think I need the toilet”.
There is chaos around me as the singing caused all manner of extreme and inexplicable reactions by the other members of the audience. It lead the show an almost magical quality – however due to the tragic and intense subject matter of the play, it felt like we were all freaks who were orgiastically affected by the events of mass murder and cruelty. (I must assert here that I am anything but)
However if you love singing you’ll love this show.
That’s if you love singing to the exclusion of all other things in the world, including your dignity all your basic bodily functions; if you do, then this show is definitely for you.
Fortunately I do.
But this is not a show for all people. Some people were furious – including the person sat next to me in the stalls. A partially hearing chap who was monumentally confused and furious as to what was happening around him.
The Production advice is to attend with a deaf chaperone in order to get you home safely.
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