As a precursor to a few weeks reviewing mainly new musicals, 50-minute "The Sound of the Musicals" will get you in the mood. Billed as a lunch-time show, or breakfast, depending on when you rise during your time at the Fringe, it is a short show that runs through some well-known songs and one or two that kept me guessing.
The absence of a compere or a programme maybe made it feel like a musical quiz and although the performance was seamless some way of informing the audience what show each number was from would have been good.
The cast comprises of six good singers, with the male voices particularly rich in the lower register.
The females all had good voices but I was particularly taken with the presentation by the dark-haired singer who rung every emotion out of everything she performed. From ‘All that Jazz’ that really stirred the sizable audience to the duet from ‘Wicked’ to her contribution to ‘One day More from ‘Les Miserables’ she looked every inch the musical theatre lead.
While this is basically a concert, the talented singers are well supported by the keyboard player and the contribution by the singer/saxophonist.
The choice of songs was good: I thought the rendering of ‘Johanna’ from ‘Sweeney Todd’ was as good if not better than soundtracks I have heard. ‘Suddenly Seymour’ from ‘Little shop of horrors’ is a favourite but the delivery of ‘On the street where we live’ even put my dislike for the music from ‘My Fair lady’ to one side.
A really good start to your day in one of the most comfortable venues on the Fringe.
Til 29 Aug (not Sundays), 12.10pm