By Louise
Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/episodes/theatre-channel-episode-1/
£12
Available until: 9th October 2020
The Theatre Café have made such a big contributions to
lockdown performances. They organised over seventy Leave a Light On concerts,
each featuring a West End musical theatre star. After that came another series
of concerts and workshops called The Interval Act, and they’ve recently started
a new series called A Nightcap with… which is a combination of a concert and an
interview. There have also been Zoom quizzes, which always sold out.
They have done so much to help us get through the coronavirus crisis and now they have started another new series called The Theatre Channel which has several guests each week, singing songs filmed on location, with an ensemble of four West End singers. The especially nice thing about The Theatre Channel and the Nightcap concerts is that they aren’t just available as a livestream – they are available to watch afterwards too so you should be able to go and buy them now if you want to.
None of their concerts are free, but the prices are much
lower than they’d be at an actual concert and also much lower than a lot of
online concerts. And they are also a business which has been shut down for a
long time. Even now, going to a café is really complicated so I think it’s
completely fair for us to pay. And their concerts are always worth the money.
The episode opened with the Café Four singing a song I
didn’t know, Coffee (in a Cardboard Cup). The ensemble is really good. Their voices
blend well together and they sound good individually too. They are Alyn Hawke,
Emily Langham, Sadie-Jean Shirley (who I saw in Aladdin) and Alex
Woodward.
They had some star names for the first week. Lucie Jones
sang a really powerful ‘Maybe This Time’ from Cabaret. Carrie Hope Fletcher and
Oliver Ormson are a real-life couple so they were able to perform a duet,
‘Suddenly Seymour’ from Little Shop of Horrors. It was really romantic
and you can tell they’re good actors as their relationship seemed totally
different from when they sang together in Ms Fletcher’s Live at the Coliseum
concert.
Jodie Steele looked beautiful and sang beautifully in
‘Heaven on Their Minds’ from Jesus Christ Superstar. She was walking
around on what looked like a rooftop, but she has so much presence. It might
still be possible to buy Ms Steele’s A Nightcap With… concert too. She’s very
good.
There was also the opportunity to see more of singers I
don’t know so well and to see singers for the first time. Tarinn Callendar is
very smooth in ‘On Broadway’ from Smokey Joe’s Café. This is a good
example of how to be full of energy and totally relaxed at the same time. Matt
Henry sang ‘Let It Sing’ from Violet, which I haven’t even heard of, but
I’d love to hear or see the whole musical now. Jenna Russell sang ‘The Ladies
Who Lunch’ from Cabaret. She has a really powerful voice and I loved the
personality she put into the song.
I enjoyed this concert a lot and I’m really looking forward
to the next one.
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