By Imogen
Link: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/olivertompsett?autoplay=1
It costs £10 to rent it but you can watch it as many times as you like for a whole
week!
Available until: It’s been on the site for ages and I
haven’t heard anything about them taking it down.
This is another brilliant concert from U R Live! Oliver Tompsett
is so talented and he’s such a nice man too. He’s put together a really clever
programme which shows how versatile he is but it also meant he could talk about
his life and career and about lockdown in a really natural way that flowed from
one song to the next.
Oliver wears a black suit with a white shirt with the top few buttons open and no tie. It can get very warm wearing black clothes under hot lights (they look really soft and romantic but it is uncomfortable when they’re shining on you for an hour) and Oliver says a few times how hot he is and I really couldn’t argue with that! His dark hair looks lovely, brushed back at the front with little waves at the back and he’s all stubbly. A great look for a musical theatre star.
His MD was the very versatile Tim Maple who accompanied
Oliver on the piano and guitar. This is unusual but it worked really well as
Oliver was able to play a different range of music. He even let Tim have little
solo moments which shows what a generous guy Oliver is. They seem really
comfortable together, it is important as a singer to have a good partnership
with your accompanist. My sister Louise is my favourite accompanist. Sometimes
the music is too difficult for her and that’s quite annoying but she does
everything I want so we work really well together.
I can’t talk about all his songs because we have a silly new
rule about keeping our reviews under 1000 words but Oliver sings lots of
different styles of music, ranging from rock through various musical theatre
styles to Les Miserables which I believe is almost in a classical style
of singing. I have so many favourites which is basically all of them but
Beautiful City from Godspell is just lush, it is very gentle and lyrical,
I’m sure Oliver is a really gentle guy.
Dancing Through Life from Wicked is brilliantly
acted, lots of people say Fiyero is shallow but I think he makes so many great
points in this song which are so true, dancing is so much more important than
schoolwork. (My little sister Megan is really clever and she has 6 GCSEs but
they don’t teach you anything about real life issues like getting a boyfriend
or developing your fashion sense.) Oliver has a very deep affection for his
roles but he understands that Wicked is all about the girls, not Fiyero
which I think is really important. It is so annoying when people try to make
things all about them.
What Do I Need with Love? from Thoroughly Modern Millie
shows a different side to Oliver. He is such a lovely sweet guy but this proves
he can be slimy and sleazy when he needs to be but because he is so lovely he
can give the horrible characters charm too. He did the same with Luck Be a
Lady. I disagree with the view that Guys & Dolls is one of the three
great musicals, I think all the characters are total idiots but Oliver makes
Sky Masterson into a charming idiot and shows off his masterful low notes and a
totally different vocal quality.
Oliver also sings I Want to Break Free from We Will Rock
You. This is such an important song because it introduces you to the main
characters and it is very important to make an impact right away and make the
audience love you because the rest of the musical is really weird but Oliver
sings the song with so much character and the rock vocals just burst out of
him.
He also sang Yesterday by The Beatles which is actually ok
for an old song. The Beatles don’t have the talent of 5 Seconds of Summer or
the Jonas Brothers or even One Direction but this is like a really underrated song
because it has so much emotional scope for a really talented singer like
Oliver, his performance is just to die for.
Somewhere from West Side Story is so relevant to the
current times we live in, Oliver puts so much real feeling into the song. He is
much too young to play Jean Valjean in Les Miserables and I prefer
Marius anyway but I love what he does with Bring Him Home, he puts so much
emotion into it and his floated high notes are gorgeous, it sounds totally
effortless but it’s not, singing is really hard work, we are athletes really.
I also really love listening to Oliver talk between songs.
He is such a deep caring person. He is so right about taking comfort from the
simple pleasures in life, I have really missed simple pleasures like getting my
nails done and going shopping. I can paint my own nails obviously but it is
such a treat to have it done by a professional.
Oliver also has good advice for young singers, he is so
right about the importance of a big audition rep, you want to show something a
bit different in every audition and sometimes they’ll ask you for a second song
and you need to have something contrasting prepared but make sure you can sing
it. A lot of casting directors are much too old to sleep with on the casting
couch so you’ve got to sing everything properly. Not that Oliver should be
auditioning for anything anymore, he’s much too famous, I’m sure all the really
important people must know who he is.
So everyone go and rent this amazing concert, if you have
any taste at all you won’t be disappointed.
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