Faith – The George Michael Legacy at Preston Guild Hall Review
8 March 2018
Reviewed by Jan Mellor
My friend and I saw George Michael a few years ago and of course he was amazing. Following his tragic death in 2016 his music stirs those wonderful memories of that great performance. With this in mind that same friend and I went to see what Wayne Dilks’ show ‘Faith – The George Michael Legacy’ could do to replicate this superstar.
The theatre was packed (90% women) and as the set opened with ‘Here I am’ – ‘George’ walked on stage – these women went wild! He continued with ‘Faster Love’, then Wham’s – ‘I’m your man’ (with old 80’s footage at the background) and at this point the audience were up on their feet waving arms and screaming like teenagers. He welcomed us to the evening and had an uncanny resemblance to the star however when he talked it could have been the real thing! He moved through the hits quite effortlessly – ‘Father Figure’, ‘Everything’ (Wham!), ‘Too Funky’, ‘Praying for time’ (which he did wonderfully), ‘Feeling Good’ ‘Different Corner’ and ‘Amazing’- all supported by original or similar video footage playing in the background.
The dancing girls gave that raunchy (solo George) and Pepsi and Shirley (Wham!) feel throughout and all in all the first set went very well with audience participation and sheer delight from the avid Wham! and George fans.
Following a 30-minute break (a little too long – that got the audience restless), George appeared on stage with his backup singers dressed in full LA cop uniform for the opening number of ‘Outside’ with helicopter and police car backdrops – a great touch. Moving quickly onto ‘Faith’, then ‘Spinning the wheel’ with the crowd swaying (as instructed by George) … the crowd loved it.
Wayne had a lot of interaction with the audience and spoke to them about his 17-year-old career in this role (firstly appearing in the show ‘stars in their eyes’) adding how he had never met the man, George Michael, himself (only his dad Jack) and how he regretted that. The show was a good mixture of Wham! songs and George songs (the ballads suited Wayne’s voice much better) and for those of us who now so miss the great funky songs and heart-wrenching ballads of this great man – it was an impressive, enjoyable and soulful performance.
A great night for George fans.
Rating: 4/5
Faith – The George Michael Legacy is currently touring the UK, for more information and tour dates visit www.faithgeorgemichael.com.
For other shows at the Preston Guild Hall visit www.prestonguildhall.co.uk.
The Guild Hall & Charter Theatre, Lancaster Road, Preston, PR1 1HT | 01772 804444