A powerfully miked vocal trio from London's West End blazed their way through a most enjoyable selection of jukebox and rock musicals at the Thailand Cultural Centre on Oct 21 in the "Musical Rock" concert.
Musical director Michael England gave all arrangements the full symphonic-rock treatment with the admirably versatile Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. Part of their successful "Great Artists Concert Series" in honour of His Majesty the King's 88th birthday, the BSO Foundation has been staging popular music concerts since as long ago as 1990, and over the years has certainly learned how to put on an impressive show complete with elaborate lighting and state-of-the-art sound design.
Sartorially resplendent singers Jenna Lee-James, Rachel Wooding and Oliver Tompsett were making their first appearance here, whilst England has visited now for three consecutive seasons. From the opening of Mamma Mia!'s Overture it was obvious that the amplification was going to be appropriately loud, but there were also a few gentler moments along the way, starting with a lovely solo of Abba's I Have A Dream rendered by principal oboist Chanannat Meenanan.
After the punchy syncopations of What A Feeling! from 1980s movie Flashdance set an upbeat tone with the whole ensemble, each singer then grabbed the attention of the audience individually with a sequence of enthralling solo numbers. Tompsett appeared stage-right in a sauve, sheeny silver-grey suit for One Song Glory from rock-musical Rent; Rachel Wooding in a long red gown dress for Fame; and Lee-James in an eye-catching sparkling gown dress for I Will Always Love You from movie The Bodyguard -- this featured another fine orchestral solo from saxophonist Supat Hanpattanachai, whilst a piercing top G from Lee-James almost brought the house down.
Affectionate ballad My Eyes Adored You from Jersey Boys then had some nice duet work, with Tompsett/Lee-James harmoniously sonorous together in sumptuous thirds, before the BSO marked the halfway point of the first half with Andrew Lloyd-Webber's Evita Suite. Reappearing in a catching white gown to sing that musical's sunny, Latino-fuelled hit Buenos Aires, Wooding clearly relished Eva Peron's self-adulatory line: "Just a little touch of star quality!"
Another truly classic but more recent showstopper, Defying Gravity (from Stephen Schwartz's phenomenal show Wicked) then stood out as a highlight of the entire performance, Lee-James giving a spine-tingling interpretation as she played the part of Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) in a sparkling green dress. This highly charged number encouraged enthusiastic roars of approval in the TCC. A real rollercoaster of a song, England introduced it by pointing out that the composer cleverly pays homage to Harold Arlen's historic score for the original 1939 The Wizard Of Oz, by adapting the first seven notes of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. The cello section alone duly obliged by demonstrating the thematic link.
Michael Jackson's funky dance tune Man In The Mirror -- from West End jukebox musical Thriller Live -- brought Tompsett back on stage sporting a cool, casual waistcoat, with two songs from the outrageous, uproarious drag-queen show Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert then closing out the first half with Wooding and Lee-James now in rather shorter glittering skirts. I Will Survive involved some audience clapping participation, and anthem Go West by Village People (but made even more iconic later by the Pet Shop Boys) ended with the ensemble pointing together stage-left, giving themselves their own cue to take a well deserved intermission.
The title of the show itself, Musicals Rock, was displayed prominently throughout in large faux grey-rock lettering just below the lighting rig, an effective take on the double meaning of rock in this context of course. As the high-octane One Night In Bangkok from the Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus post-Abba rock-musical Chess got the second half off to a flying start, with Tompsett doing a fine job of emulating Murray Head's famous original recording, it was clear that the pace and energy was only going to increase from here on in. Designed to give London audiences a taste of faraway exoticism when the show first opened in 1986, there are inevitable popular cultural clichés referenced here -- in lyrical content and music style. Wooding/Lee-James had some parallel perfect intervals (sung perfectly in-tune), whilst flute principal Worapon Kanweerayothin stood up for a thrilling, virtuoso display.
Jesus Christ Superstar Overture and Heaven On Their Minds further ratcheted up the tension step by step, with drum kit, bass guitar and most audibly electric guitars (Thanapot Phumipak & Sakol Siripiputanakul) becoming ever more prominent in the mix. This continued into the final sequence of the night, a celebration of perhaps the most successful jukebox musical of them all, We Will Rock You, based on the songs of supergroup Queen. We Are The Champions finally had the whole audience waving arms together high in the air as slashing white lights illuminated the whole auditorium.
Thank You For The Music from Mamma Mia! had the last word, however, and indeed the full house had clearly enjoyed a great and varied set list. Just outside the venue one delighted member of the audience could be overheard congratulating a violinist from the BSO. Being American, she said that the Grease medley was in fact her favourite part of the fantastic show, finishing as it did with a joyous chorus of "a wop baba doo da a wop bam boom!".
