It came as no surprise whatsoever to witness, once again, a full house at the Thai Cultural Centre last Friday, in large part because of the highly anticipated return of West End maestro Michael England, who packed the same venue with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra just over a year ago.
Leila Benn Harris and John Owen-Jones.
This year's "A Night At The Musicals" more or less repeated the formula that has consistently proved a sure-fire hit with Bangkokians, who duly came out in their droves to be entertained by the familiar and also a few things fresh and new.
Les Misérables and Phantom Of The Opera legend John Owen-Jones, a man of striking physical stature, has sung with the BSO before, but that was quite a few years ago. This audience was clearly — not to mention very audibly — delighted to be reminded why he has been voted the "best-ever" Jean Valjean in Les Mis, whilst he has performed the role of the Phantom in London West End almost 2,000 times. With such experience, he had no problems in working the crowd here into a joyful frenzy as he sang his way powerfully through seven solo numbers and seven duets with the co-star for this show, the British actress/vocalist Leila Benn Harris. She likewise had seven solo numbers, altogether presenting a most generous, symmetrically structured set-list, interspersed by four enjoyable symphonic medleys for the BSO alone.
"West End Overture", the first of these, linked together tunes from Cats, Sunset Boulevard, Miss Saigon and Evita, before the early classic 1934 duet You're The Top got stage proceedings off to a flying start with Cole Porter's ingenious wordplay.
Immediately flashing forward some 50 years to Andrew Lloyd Webber's sentimental love-ballad Unexpected Song, Harris began her solo set beautifully with a pure, composed and warm voice. Owen-Jones then continued with another affectionate solo, the infectious tune Starlight Express. The opening Webber segment then segued into his I Believe My Heart (featuring a nice horn solo by Supreeti Ansvananda), Love Never Dies (Harris), and 'Til I Hear You Sing (Owen-Jones), before the other principal pillar of the whole modern mega-musical edifice — a certain Claude-Michel Schönberg — accounted for the rest of the first half.
Miss Saigon really does boast the most incredible sequence of delectable melodies, and England steered the BSO through its next exciting medley including Sun And Moon, The Heat Is On In Saigon, and The American Dream. The Last Night Of The World duet, featuring that seductive saxophone solo (played perfectly here by Supat Hanpattanachai) came after the intermission.
However, Les Mis arguably outdoes even Saigon in terms of iconic songs, and The Cafe Song (Owen-Jones) and On My Own (Harris) led to what was perhaps the pièce de résistance of the entire evening — namely Owen-Jones singing the exquisite showstopper Bring Him Home (The Prayer). Those who were present knew only too well that this was a true privilege to behold as the singer intoned that final, ever-so-famous, tender top A. Duly bringing the house down with ecstatic roars, the rousing anthem The People's Song duet then rounded off the first half.
A cleverly programmed contrast of styles followed the interval, with A Chorus Line Suite (England/BSO) and The Sound of Music (Harris doing an extremely good job here of living up to Julie Andrews!) giving focus to the only two composers ever to have won all of the major awards that the entertainment industry can offer. Marvin Hamlisch and Richard Rodgers are truly respected composers of distinction in the field of classic musical theatre for Broadway and Hamlisch's great original tunes I Hope I Get It, What I Did For Love, and One were a particular joy to hear. It importantly reminds us that A Chorus Line ran for many thousands of performances itself, competing with the modern "big guns" of Webber/Schönberg/Disney in terms of pure box office success.
This Is The Moment (from Frank Wildhorn's gothic Jekyll And Hyde) and Anthem (from ABBA legends' Benny and Björn's Chess) continued Owen-Jones' impressive solos, whilst the cheeky little ditty Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002, pastiche-music by Jeanine Tesori) was a delightful harking back to jazz idioms of the 1920s, a nice and welcome contrast from Harris before moving into the final Webber sequence.
A practical repeat of last year's climax (after all, if something works, there's no need to change it!), Michael England introduced Think Of Me (Harris), The Music Of The Night (Owen-Jones), Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again (Harris), and of course the rock-infused Phantom Of The Opera duet itself.
The conductor made light of the fact that Disney's The Lion King had recently overtaken even the mighty Phantom as the all-time highest–grossing entertainment piece and yet Webber, once again, inevitably had the final word with Aspects Of Love encore, Love Changes Everything. Everything except, that is, for this tried-and-tested quality-show formula. Expect and anticipate more of the same next year — Phantastic!
