Musicals Rock
The Bridgewater Hall
Since the late 60’s, rock musicals have been a mainstay of musical theatre. Shows such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Rent and The Rocky Horror Show have contributed to a rock revolution that continues today with shows like Dear Evan Hanson and Waitress.
As part of the Halle Orchestra’s 2002/2003 concert season, conductor Alfonso Casado Trigo has selected some of his favourite rock musicals for the Halle orchestra to perform alongside seasoned singers Emma Kingston, Debbie Kurup, David Thaxton and Ricardo Afonso.
Starting with the overture from the Abba-inspired musical Mamma Mia, the set-list was a mix of classic musicals and newer productions. The switch between big ballad numbers such as I Will Always Love You from The Bodyguard and high-energy numbers such as Pinball Wizard from Tommy provided a great variation in what risked being a one-note performance.
Throughout the performance, Alfonso Casado Trigo was totally engaged with the audience. Explaining not only his reasons for selecting certain songs but also a brief history of the rock musical genre, Trigo’s enthusiasm for each the selections was obvious. If anyone had entered the Bridgewater auditorium less than enthused that wouldn’t have lasted long!
The guest vocalists were outstanding. Each clearly had a key performance piece that they excelled at, but there were no sub-par performances.
One of the highlights of the evening for us was Ricardo Afonso’s rendition of Heaven On Their Minds from Jesus Christ Superstar. There is definitely a bias from Jo in this as this is her favourite song from one of her favourite musicals, but Afonso was mesmerising. His rendition was the best we’ve seen in recent years and was almost as phenomenal as Murray Head.
Another highlight was Emma Kingston’s Defying Gravity. The song has become a staple of musical compilations, but Kingston brought an extra dimension to the song.
We also enjoyed Where Did The Rock Go from School of Rock. This isn’t a musical that we have seen (yet!), nor are we overly familiar with the songs from the show, but this was a very moving performance.
From the start of the performance, Alfonso Casad Trigo made clear to the audience that they could sing and dance along within reason. In a week that a performance of The Bodyguard had to be stopped in Manchester due to the audience singing along, this brought a chuckle. There wasn’t any singing or dancing from the audience sat near us until the encore which was Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Show.
When we first took our seats, a quick flick through the free programme (courtesy of concert series sponsors Brother printers), we had been disappointed to see no Rocky Horror songs listed. Clearly, the Halle and Trigo were saving this for the encore.
In hindsight, when else would Time Warp have worked? There’s absolutely no way that the audience wouldn’t have joined in on such a classic!
There were very few people still seated by the end of the opening “It’s astounding”, and as the Time Warp concluded it was clear everyone had thoroughly enjoyed this concert series offering.
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