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Phew!
What a Feeling – it’s going to live forever. They promise you
a roller coaster of emotions and they deliver. For those of
us who were there the first time around, you’re taken back in
time.
The set
is perfect in its simplicity. It is black and there are two
massive speakers in the front…the ideal symbol of the era when
the size of your equipment really mattered. The band hovers
in the air on a precarious stage connected by two sets of steps
either side. The rest of the stage is bare…just for the performers.
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| Ooh
to be ah - Limahl |
That icon
of the eighties "Ooh to be ah" Limahl opens with a "Never ending
story".. Above me in the second tier a group of women have put
their handbags down and are strutting their stuff.
Gwen Dickey,
ex-Rose Royce lead singer, takes over seamlessly with "Carwash".
An ageing audience is already captured and the party’s begun…and
so it goes on. Before you know it forty-five minutes are up
and you’re into half time.
The test
of a good night out at the theatre is the buzz during the interval.
And with this concert – they’re right when the bill it as "Rock’n’pop
Musicals in Concert" – the paying public are talking about what
they were doing when.
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| Gwen
you're smiling |
In the second
act listen out for the Saturday Night Fever and Abba medleys…if
they don’t bring back the memories, nothing will.
It would
be easy and popular to write off Limahl but the boy from Wigan
has class. He takes the mickey out of himself, some tongue-in-cheek
asides that show he’s got the common touch and his fans love
it. His James Bond impression is so kitsch.
Ms Dickey
shows why she’s still popular as the audience hush as she croons
"Wish Upon Star" and "Love Don’t Live Here Anymore."
But watch
out also for two big stars of the future. Melanie
Marshall does a raunchy Hound Dog and Lincoln Lockhart is the
mean, moody and magnificent Danny from "Grease".
There’s
even something for the teenyboppers (are they still called this??)
with the all new boyband "4 The Boyz". Like the "What a Feeling"
singers and dancers they are energetic and well choreographed.
If the Theatre
Royal had an aisle then the audience would have been dancing
down it.
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