FALLING STARS (Union Theatre/Stream Theatre)****

  

By Alan

Link: https://www.stream.theatre/shows £18

Available until: Further livestreams on Monday 23^rd-Saturday 29^th November, with 2.30pm matinees on Saturday 28^th and Sunday 29^th.

I don’t always like juke box musicals as I think they can be a bit lazy but I don’t really see this as a juke box musical. There’s no plot, it’s more the story of music from around the 1920s which was obviously 100 years ago. Peter Polycarpou does most of the presenting and the explanation of what music was being written but he is helped in this by Sally Ann Triplett who does some of the narration and sings quite a lot of the songs.

The stage has scenery which is unusual for lockdown theatre but it does give the production something extra. The accompaniment is mostly provided by offstage piano and that is really good but there is also a piano onstage which Peter Polycarpou plays.

The two performers are both really good. Peter Polycarpou does a really good job of explaining everything clearly and Sally Ann Triplett is especially good at the acting. They are both very good and very versatile singers and they can sing in all the different styles.

I thought it was really interesting. I enjoyed hearing about the history of each of the songs and I liked the music too. It was more varied than I thought it would be. There were a few songs I already knew. Smile for example is a really famous song and I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles is a West Ham song. We aren’t West Ham fans but Jack is a Millwall fan and he knows rude versions of West Ham songs. There is another song I have heard on Strictly and a few more I know because they are from musicals.

Not all the well-known songs are sung all the way through, sometimes it is just a line but most of the songs are sung all the way through and they are really good. There is music from Charlie Chaplin which was nice. I knew he won an Oscar for a film score but I had not heard his music before.

Falling Stars is quite expensive and it is only an hour long but it is an opportunity to see two big West End stars sing really good music which you might have never heard of before and you can learn a lot from watching it too.