By Imogen
Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/livestreams/out-of-the-spotlight-into-the-darkness-episode-1
£9 for single episode or £25 for the complete 3 episode series
Available until: The Theatre Café website says N/A.
The Theatre Café have been one of the most active venues
through this annoying lockdown business. They started off by streaming concerts
from performers’ homes and more recently they’ve actually been letting the
performers into the café. The Apollo Theatre is one of the theatres that have
really tried to get up and running again. The Government messed all that up but
even though the Apollo can’t let audiences in they can’t stop the performers.
Some of this show is filmed at the Apollo and some is at the Theatre Café.
The show that should currently be at the Apollo is Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and this series is presented by Hiba Elchikhe and Sejal Keshwala, who play Pritti and Ray in that show so it makes sense that the first concert in this series of three should be focused on Jamie. All the singers who appear in this concert have been part of the West End or touring cast of Jamie and a lot of the songs are from Jamie.
If you don’t know anything about Jamie (in which case
where have you been?) you’ll find out a few things from this concert about the
plot and some of the music. There’s a short interview with Tom MacRae who wrote
the book and lyrics and also with Phil Nichol who plays Hugo Battersby/Loco
Chanelle. One thing about Jamie which makes it different from other
musicals is that they keep it current and keep updating the script so the
latest script is set during the pandemic and it has masks in. Of course the
Government are so annoying they might end up keeping the theatres closed till
we’ve all had the vaccine and we don’t need masks but let’s hope not. I want to
see the pandemic version. Why did we get landed with such an uncultured
Government? It’s not fair. This is our careers they’re messing with.
The concert is presented very responsibly. No one actually
wears masks because they get in the way of the singing and talking but everyone
social distances apart from Hiba and Sejal who are probably in a bubble. Hiba
and Sejal dress for the occasion in sparkly clothes. Sejal has a few different
outfits but my favourite is a black and silver minidress which really suits her
and high nude heels. Her hair is loose and in beautiful condition. Hiba wears a
sparkly jacket and trousers with black heeled boots and her hair is loose in
some bits and in a high pony tail in others. They both look beautiful. Not all
of the others make the same effort but they do sing well.
The first song of the concert is a very appropriate choice,
Spotlight from Jamie, sung by the West End and tour Prittis, Hiba and
Sharan Phull with members of the ensemble. It’s a really lovely performance.
Hiba returns later to sing a song from Wicked and it’s not Defying
Gravity. It’s not The Wizard and I. It’s so good to see someone proving there
are other good songs in Wicked and Hiba characterises this really well
with powerful low notes and makes it quite spooky too.
Sejal also sings a solo and hers is from City of Angels.
She is very good at the slightly jazzy style and she and Hiba show just how
versatile they are when they sing together at the end but I’m not telling you
what the song is.
The other singers are Noah Thomas (Jamie), James Gillan
(Tray Sophistcay), Melissa Jacques (Margaret) and Courtney Bowman who used to
play Fatimah and cover Pritti. They sing a good range of different songs from
musicals including Starlight Express and Sister Act. There are also a couple of
brief appearances from David O’Reilly (Laika Virgin).
It’s a fun concert and a great opportunity to see some of
the singers the Government have deprived us of. The next one focuses on musical
theatre so it will have some non Jamie singers and hopefully some songs
from some of my other favourite musicals like Six and Les Miserables.
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