Anthems: The Concert

Kerry Ellis and Brian May's (as they have equal billing) tour Anthems:The Concert kicked off last night at the Royal Albert Hall, with extra support from Adam Pascal, string quartet Escala, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the West End Chorus. It was awesome.

Brian May explained at the very beginning the evening was about the combination of rock music and theatre, developing from Hair to Spring Awakening. The first half was primarily performed by the West End Chorus (whose soloists in 'The Show Must Go On' and the Hair meadly were wonderful, but unfortunately unnamed) and Adam Pascal. Pascal really, really surprised me; of course, he did songs from Rent-hearing 'One Song Glory' live is really wonderful. However, the two songs that really stood out for me were 'Flying Home' from Songs for a New World and 'You'll Never Walk Alone'-which was honestly stunning. Escala were very talented, but seemed a little out of place; although I guess as a electric string quartet they embodied classical music/rock crossover.

The second half brought with it Kerry Ellis, and was pretty much the Anthems album on stage. It began with 'Dangerland', a song that sounds massive on the CD (if that's possible) and was even more incredible on stage. Other stand-outs were 'You Have to Be There', a song from the musical Kristina, 'Somebody to Love', 'No-One But You' and 'I Love it When You Call', featuring the lead singer of The Feeling and writer of the song, Dan Gillesepe. Brian May's rendition of 'Love of My Life' was also pretty amazing; in my opinion he could have done with singing more in the concert, as opposed to just playing gratuitous guitar riffs (just my opinion, but I personally feel a few songs could have been left without the extra guitar). Of course, 'Defying Gravity' and 'Anthem' bought the house down.

Kerry Ellis does seem to have a pretty flawless voice; you tend to expect a little leeway for error when you see performers live; but Ellis just sounds perfect. She's a very natural performer with a pretty enormous range, and hopefully performing alongside Brian May will enable her to reach people that would not necessarily see musicals like Les Miserables or Wicked, although she did of course originate a role in We Will Rock You. As I said, May's voice is still pretty solid and his guitar playing got massive applause (I'll admit that I got increasingly nonplussed; he's a guitarist...playing electric guitar is what he does), so he still seems to have the Queen-effect.

Give or take a few negatives (again the sound was off at the very beginning with the Chorus, and some of the audience around me could have done with learning some manners) Anthems: The Concert was a really good night out. It really showed off some powerhouse voices and hopefully will go on to have success across the country.

Anthems

I’ve seen Kerry Ellis perform live twice, once as Elphaba in Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked and then as a lead soloist in this year’s Night of 1000 Voices at the Royal Albert Hall. She also features on the DVD of the Royal Albert Hall production of Chess as Svetlana.

When I saw her in Wicked, I remember being somewhat underwhelmed. She had a lot of internet buzz about her portrayal of Elphaba being wonderful, as is often the case with hype, I felt a bit let down. I saw her back in 2008, and whilst I remember little of her performance, her co-star Dianne Pilkington as Glinda is still memorable.

But the one thing Ellis does possess in a wonderful voice, seen clearly in Chess (where I believe, vocally at least, she should have been cast as Florence) and I really got hooked on her as a performer when I saw her in May, singing songs as diverse as ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ and ‘Don’t’ Cry for Me Argentina’.

Once she finishes in Oliver! where she is currently playing Nancy, Ellis has announced that she will be taking a break from acting and this album with Brian May is her foray into a career as a music performer.
The album features a couple of tracks that have been previously released ‘Defying Gravity’ and ‘I’m Not That Girl’ from Wicked, but with a rock riff and ‘No One But You’ which you can hear her sing on the Original London recording of We Will Rock You, although the version on the album is longer and slightly more acoustic.

As I’ve said, Ellis has an incredible voice, seen particularly on this recording in ‘This Can’t Be Over’ and the beautiful ‘You Have to be There’ from the musical Kristina.

My only issue with the album is the sometime gratuitous electric guitar solos and riffs throughout some of the songs, most notably in ‘Anthem’ from Chess, which starts with a lovely piano based backing, but then an electric guitar smashes through the bridge, which unbalances the song, in my opinion.

Generally though, I wish Ellis the best of luck with her album, she certainly has the type of voice that deserves to be heard.

Upcoming Stuff

First off, I'm on Goodreads, here. I really like it, even if I am a little OCD about having the right editions for all the books I'm reading/have read. I'm also not sure about how the community side of things works, but its fun to be on there.

Secondly, I'm going to see Armstrong & Miller later this month, then Chris Addison in November and also, finally, Chess.

Armstrong & Miller is the live touring version of a television programme of the same name created by Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller, and contains skits such as an unsympathetic father, dinner parties, an ongoing really obvious affair that the husband does not get, and the wonderful Battle of Britain pilots sketch-which are two posh pilots, speaking in teenage slang.

Chris Addison is a comedian who I follow on Twitter (@mrchrisaddison) and he's a regular on TV shows like Mock the Week, has a guest-starring role as the headteacher in Skins and is generally awesome.

And then if you have no idea what I mean when I speak about Chess may I direct you here. It's a musical I adore, and the tour opened a couple of weeks ago, and you can view pictures and things here, but it's coming to Nottingham in November, and me and my friend are popping up to see it (YAY).

Also, way in advance, I'm going to see the amazing Arcade Fire in December in Birmingham.

There are also a couple of CD's I'm excited about:

• Anthems by Kerry Ellis. I love Kerry Ellis. I'm not crazily obsessed, I haven't seen her in Wicked 50 times or anything, but I'll definitly be buying her solo album because her voice is amazing
• Illuminations by Josh Groban. This has been a longgg time coming, and is apparently going to be a little different to his last stuff. He's kind of an operatic-pop-musical-cross-over guy, and his voice is to die for. Not many people here know who he is, and so he's best-known for his appearances in Glee, but, yeah, his voice is amazing
• Les Miserables Live-This is the international 25th anniversary touring cast CD featuring John Owen-Jones, Earl Carpenter and, er, Gareth Gates. I'm intrigued as to how the new orchestrations come off, because apparently the songs have been made more poppy in places and things. This is in anticipation of whatever DVD/CD that'll be released for the 02 concert starring Alfie Boe, Norm Lewis and Nick Jonas among many others

I thought I'd pop this post in here in between my scheduled reviews of my holiday reads, and a couple of other things because I think once school starts I won't have *that* much time to write lots. I'm really, kind of, contemplating the whole vlogging thing after watching Rosianna's videos , but a) I don't know how long my camera lasts and b) I ramble. A lot.

Dear Music God

I can have Kerry Ellis' voice please? Just for a bit?

Thank you
xx

The Night of 1000 Voices (Royal Albert Hall, 02/05/2010 8.00pm)

Host-Aled Jones
Featured Performers-Kerry Ellis, Adam Pascal, Philip Quast
Soloists-Ricardo Afonso, Leo Andrew, Teri Bibb, Jessie Buckley, Ceri-Lyn Cissone, Tiffany Graves, Charlotte Harwood, David Michael Johnson, Katie Rowley Jones, Debbie Kurup, Kenneth Nichols, Patrick Smyth & Tabitha Webb
Dancers-Ashley Andrews, Caroline Jones, Matthew Malthouse, Rachel Muldoon, Callum Nicol, Zizi Strallen, Lucie Waugh & Jason Winter
WITH
Robin Cousens, Ainsley Harriott, Gloria Hunniford, the Original Calender Girls, Brian May, Sing Live UK/USA

Oh What A Night! Excited did not even come close to how me and my friend were feeling when we arrived at the Albert Hall, after nearly missing our tea reservation at a hotel in Kensington due to a slow tube ride. We also had no idea what the programme would feature, and felt incredibly young...

The concert is celebrating its 10th birthday, and so many of the songs were featured were popular hits from the years before. These included the Tonight Quintet from West Side Story made bigger with the addition of the huge choir, You'll Never Walk Alone from Carousel performed in spinge-tingling fashion by Kenneth Nichols of Chicago Opera and Superstar from JCS performed by David Michael Johnson and the company, with some crazy choreography.

Acknowleding the fact that Stephen Sondheim also celebrates a pretty big birthday this year, there was also performances of 'The Ballad of Sweeney Todd', and choral versions of 'Being Alive' from Company and 'Sunday' from Sunday in the Park with George. Philip Quast also sang a medley of 'Good Thing Going' and 'Not A Day Goes By' from Merrily We Roll Along. There was also a nod to the birthday of Andrew Lloyd Webber, with an Evita segment, sung and danced by Debbie Kurup ('Bueno Aires'), I'd Do Anything runner-up Jessie Buckley ('You Must Love Me') and Kerry Ellis ('Don't Cry for Me Argentina')

The other stand outs included the Chess segment, having Kerry Ellis, who played Svetlana in the 2008 concert, sing 'Nobody's Side' far better than Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal reprise his performance of 'Pity the Child' and Philip Quast singing 'Anthem'. There was also a Rent tribute, with Pascal singing 'One Song Glory' and being joined by the entire company for 'Will I' and 'Seasons of Love'. Quast's 'Stars', Tiffany Graves' dancing in 'Rhythm of Life', Ricardo Afonso's 'Kiss of the Spiderwoman', Katie Rowley Jones' 'Unusual Way' and Brian May's surpise appearance in the We Will Rock You performance were also pretty amazing.

I'm also pleased to report that I had little problems hearing everything, from the very top of the circle, despite the band occasionally being very loud and perhaps pushing singers a little too far.

I'd be more than happy to return next year.