By Megan
Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/livestreams/out-of-the-spotlight-into-the-darkness-episode-3
Available until:
This is the last concert in the Out
of the Darkness Into the Spotlight series but it was a really lovely and
happy concert to end on. Hiba Elchikhe and Sejal Keshwala have organised a
really brilliant and interesting series of concerts with so many singers I was
really excited to watch.
Lots of musical theatre stars joined
together to sing Christmas songs and there were even some Christmas poems! I
feel even more excited about Christmas too even though I still feel a little
bit sad because not everyone can enjoy Christmas in the way they want to. I am
very lucky in lots of ways but my cousin is nearly seven months old and I
haven’t met her yet. But that’s something I can look forward to in 2021.
I actually didn’t know a lot of these songs! I know all the traditional Christmas songs but I usually only know the modern songs if my siblings like them. I kind of know Joyful Joyful because it’s based on Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and I know All I Want for Christmas is You because Imogen sings that one. I know Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and Jingle Bell Rock and there are probably others I have heard before. I’m afraid I am very ignorant about lots of things. But that made the concert extra exciting because I got to hear lots of new songs.
The concert opens with a Christmas poem,
A Visit from St Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore. It is a really good
poem and it is performed really well. It is really nice that the concert has
poems as well as songs. I think every concert in this series has had a slightly
different feel and I really like that.
Carl Main is the first singer with ‘It’s
Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’ and after that it was beginning to feel
a lot like Christmas too. His performance is really lovely and sincere like he
really does mean what he’s singing and that’s really lovely.
Sejal Keshwala who is one of the
presenters is amazing at riffs and I loved hearing her sing ‘Run Run Rudolph’.
She has such a strong and powerful voice. She also makes the song really fun
and I bet that song would keep Rudolph going as he runs from house to house.
A lady sings the next song. I think
she is Shanay Holmes. The presenters didn’t say her last name and I feel bad
for not knowing but I searched online and I think I have found the right person.
I can see why she’s famous because she sang ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little
Christmas’ really beautifully and as though she really means all the words.
Imogen really likes the next two
performers because they are both from Six! I think she has very good
taste. Danielle Steers sings ‘Where Are You, Christmas?’ really gorgeously and
it is a great song for her because she gets to show us so many of the very
different things which are special about her voice. Grace Mouat sings ‘The
Christmas Song’ with lots of anticipation and I think she could probably even
make Scrooge feel just a little bit excited (though he probably wouldn’t have
paid for the livestream so he’d have missed this). She has a really lovely
voice and a lovely smile too.
Emma Kingston sings ‘O Holy Night’
which is one of the more classical songs in this concert. I like the way she
starts off singing it in a conventional (and very beautiful) way and then she
goes into a more musical theatre style for the second half which is really
exciting.
The first trio of the night is
performed (at a distance) by Carrie Hope Fletcher, Scott Paige and Rob Houchen.
They sang ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ acapella and it was so much fun. I wished I could
dance with them too. At a distance of course to keep them safe.
Maisy Bowden sings ‘Santa Tell Me’
which I know is by Ariana Grande. A lot of people would try to sing it like Ms
Grande who obviously has a very beautiful voice so anyone would like to be able
to sing like her. Ms Bowden makes it into more of a musical theatre song and I
think that’s a good thing to do because it really makes the song hers and
nobody else’s.
I didn’t know the singer who sang ‘Let
It Go’. I wish I did because I felt rude not knowing but I looked up musical
theatres who do impressions of other singers and the first person to come up
was Christina Bianco and I think it’s her. She sang Let it Go in the styles of
lots of different singers. I know who most of them are and she is so good. She
can as Adele, Idina Menzel, Julie Andrews, Shirley Bassey, and lots of others.
She doesn’t just sing like them, she does gestures like them too. She is really
clever and talented but she also has her own voice and identity as a singer.
Andrew Patrick Walker sings ‘Some Day
at Christmas’. I didn’t know the song and I didn’t even know the title but it
is a really lovely song. Mr Walker sings it with so much passion and emotion,
like he really means every word. It’s very moving.
A lot of people sing ‘All I Want for
Christmas is You’ and Imogen says a lot of people want her to sing it exactly
like Mariah Carey or they think she’s done it wrong. I think Mariah Carey is a
wonderful singer but I think it is always nice to hear singers giving their own
interpretation of this song. Lois Morgan Gay’s performance of this song is
really beautiful and it feels like a really heartfelt and personal performance.
Before the last song, there is another
story in verse. It is written and directed by Paul Bradshaw and all the singers
in the concert take it in turns to read a line. I really enjoyed it and it was
exciting to wait and see who would read the next line and what would happen
next in the story.
For the finale, presenters Sejal
Keshwala and Hiba Elchikhe are joined by Emma Kingston to sing ‘Joyful Joyful’.
I didn’t realise at first that it was based on Ode to Joy, but I was really
excited when I did and it was great to listen and see what had been changed and
what was still the same. They sounded so good together and it was a lovely
ending to a really good series of concerts and a really uplifting way to end.
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