By Imogen
Link: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/louisedearman
(You will need to create an account and pay £10 but you get access for a week)
Available until: You can rent it for a week but I think it
will be available to rent for at least a month because they’ve got an Oliver
Tompsett concert on there from about a month ago (which I’m glad about because
I want to see it, he’s hot)
This concert is £10 for a week’s access which would be a lot
if I had to pay it but I didn’t and the concert would cost a lot more if you
went in person and this way you don’t have to pay for transport which might be
full of germy people or a really expensive meal which is really nice but
everyone’s taking their masks off and how do you know where they’ve been? Why
can’t people just be responsible like me? I haven’t been on a date since March,
that’s FIVE MONTHS. I don’t think I’ve ever gone that long without kissing a
boy in my WHOLE LIFE. It’s a terrible sacrifice but I have to do the right
thing for humanity.
The concert is filmed in a stage with flattering lighting and a grand piano. The stage looks really cluttered but mostly the camera zooms in so you’re not aware of this. Louise wears a loose fitting 3 quarter length brown dress and it actually looks nice. I didn’t think anyone could look nice wearing brown. She has her hair in a messy half-bun right on the top of her head and her hair is in loose bouncy waves. She wore hoop earrings and a necklace with a silver ring-shaped pendant. Her feet are bare. I would never wear bare feet at a concert because it would be a waste of all the new shoes I’ve bought but Louise has very nicely shaped feet. If I look as good as her when I’m 41 (not that I’ll be telling anyone I’m that old) I won’t want to kill myself.
Louise talks to her audience in between songs. She’s
friendly and informative and funny and the way she talks about watching Celine
Dion is kind of the way I feel about watching Louise except I’m a bit more cool
about it. Just a tiny bit and only because I have an image to uphold. Louise is
already a big star so she can say anything she likes but I haven’t quite
reached the heights of stardom yet.
Louise sings ten songs. She doesn’t sing anything from Wicked
but that’s ok, everyone sings songs from Wicked and there are loads of
another musicals, why does everyone want to hear Wicked all the time? The
songs she chose are great choices and to anyone who moans about having no Wicked
songs you’re a whiny brat and you need to grow up.
Louise’s accompanist is Christopher Duffy who is quite fit.
He is also a very sensitive accompanist who really adapts his playing to Louise’s
voice. I hate it when pianists thump the notes or start acting like they’re the
star. Christopher knows how to enhance a singer’s playing. I think I’d enjoy
singing with him.
Louise opens her concert with two pop songs. Wonderful Life
is well known to most people who know anything at all about music and it made a
very uplifting start to the concert. Next she sang Taking Chances by Celine
Dion which was very emotional.
She then moves into musical theatre and sang Are You as
Nervous as I Am? From a new musical called What the Hell is it For? I
don’t know the musical and I think the title is ugly but based off this song I
think it’ll be really good, Louise gives a really good sense of what her
character is like too.
Louise also sang Stars and the Moon which she says she’s
sung in auditions but never performed before. I am shocked, she seriously has
to audition? She’s like the most talented singer in the whole West End! But she
does a great job of the song, it includes lots of little stories and Louise tells
the stories really well (her diction all the way through is brilliant, she never
mumbles and she always bothers to pronounce her words properly) and she puts
the humour into the song too.
The next song is Baby Mine from her new lullaby album. It’s
a nice lullaby but it didn’t send me to sleep, only boring songs send me to
sleep and this isn’t boring. It’s very gentle and soothing so I’m sure it would
make an excellent lullaby. My mum has a new baby and so does one of my aunts (I
think it’s catching) so that’s their Christmas presents sorted and it’s only
August. (Though I do kind of wish I had it now, maybe then Barbara would stop screaming.
Just calm down, there’s nothing to scream about, you’re not at a Shawn Mendes
concert and no one is wearing the same dress as you.)
There is something for the Wicked fans, Stephen Schwartz
who is the composer and lyricist for Wicked also wrote a musical called Children
of Eden which I know doesn’t sound like it’s up there with wicked witches
but there’s nothing wrong with the music. Louise sings a song from it called
The Spark of Creation. It has that ripply quality which is very common in Stephen’s
music and there’s also a real sense of excitement in it which Louise builds up
beautifully.
Next Louise sings Time after Time which is on her fabulous
album Here Comes the Sun as a duet with Steve Balsamo, they have also sung it
live together. But he wasn’t there so Louise sings the song on her own. I think
this is such a fab idea for Louise to sing a different version of a song all her
real fans would have heard her sing before. She sings it really nicely as a
solo and like on the recording her voice had a beautiful breathy, dreamy
quality which is just right.
After that Louise sings She Used to Be Mine from Waitress.
I can’t believe Louise has never seen it but life can be so busy when you’re famous
and of course Waitress closed earlier than it should have done because
of the stupid annoying coronavirus which needs to go away now, we’re so over
it. It was ok in termtime but it’s ruining my summer now. Just saying. Anyway
Louise’s voice is gorgeous in this and even if she had seen Waitress I
don’t think she could have a better understanding of the song and the character
who sings it. I think she should totally sing Jenna, she would be right up
there with Lucie Jones, Sara Bareilles (who I’m sure you know wrote the songs
for Waitress and if you don’t where have you been?) and Katharine McPhee.
(Btw if there is a second opportunity to see it you should totally book for
Lucie’s concert with David Hunter, I didn’t do a review as there was only one
show but I’ll do one if they announce a repeat stream. Lucie is a goddess and
David is to die for and they are hilarious together, if they weren’t married to
other people they should totally date.)
Meadowlark from The Baker’s Wife is actually a
musical theatre song I didn’t know and it was a first for Louise too because
she’s never sung it before. This is a really challenging song because the
singer has to be able to be lyrical and dramatic, to float notes and go into a
full-out belt but when you’re Louise Dearman you can do anything. This is
another song with a story and Louise tells it beautifully.
The last song was Impossible Dream which Louise has also
sung at the Royal Albert Hall for the Festival of Remembrance. She says the
whole Royal Family were there and all I can say is lucky them. If Louise sang
half as well for them as she did for us then she smashed it.
It’s always very special to hear Louise sing but I really
loved the programme she chose for this concert and for her Leave a Light On
concert for The Theatre Café. I
especially love hearing her sing lyrical music. She can sing anything, she might
even be able to make rap sound good but I think lyricism with a real depth of
emotion is her absolute forte.
No comments:
Post a Comment