REVIEW: Christmas at the Musicals – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall 11th December 2011
Advertised as “show-stopping numbers from the greatest West End and Broadway musicals including Love Never Dies, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Chicago, My Fair Lady, Wicked and many more. With soloists from London’s West End”. Feeling festive and seeing that one of my West End faves Michael Xavier (below) was one of the singers I decided to book an outing to this.
seen below as Cinderella’s Prince in the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre version of Into the Woods,
It also featured Helen Hobson;
below as Donna in Mamma Mia,
Leila Benn Harris;
below (with Ramin Karimloo) as Christine in Phantom of the Opera,
and Scott Davies, below as The Phantom,
all accompanied by the Scottish Festival Orchestra and City of Glasgow Chorus, conducted by John Owen Edwards. Now potentially this was a quality line up and so it proved to be. Each of the soloists were fantastic. This was spectacularly played and sung and there were moments when I had genuine goosebumps. Being a bit of a Michael Xavier fan I especially enjoyed his songs and the twinkle in his eye with which he delivered each song was a joy (as well as his frequent outfit changes). The most rousing moments were Can You Hear The People Sing? and One Day More from Les Miserables and Why God Why from Miss Saigon and the audience voiced their appreciation loudly in the rapturous and sustained applause at the end. Like the rest of the audience I left with a spring in my step and with a song in my heart. Roll on next year.
