EntertainmentTheatre

Tonights The Night at the Grand Opera House Review

TonightsthenightTonight’s The Night
The Rod Stewart Musical
Grand Opera House, York

28 April to 3 May 2014

www.atgtickets.com/york

Reviewed by Emma Wasson

On arrival at the Grand Opera House in York to see Tonight’s The Night; The Rod Stewart Musical my tickets were waiting for me at the box office. I got a programme and ordered our drinks for interval drinks.

All encounters with staff were positive. A member of staff was located at each entrance to the theatre and pointed us in the direction of our seats, the bar and the toilets.

The theatre was clean and tidy as were the toilets. At the interval there were the usual queues for the ladies toilets, but nothing you wouldn’t expect on a busy evening.

The performance of Tonight’s The Night musical had attracted a large crowd and the theatre was busy and buzzing with excitement and everyone was keen for the performance to begin.

The musical tells the story of a shy mechanic from Detroit who is in love with Mary, one of his co-workers. However too shy to declare his feelings, one fateful day he does a deal with the devil and swaps his soul for that of Rod Stewart. The performance then sees his rise to stardom, having met a rock band on his travels in desperate need of a front man. However, whilst on the road he is tormented by his conflicting feelings. He believes he should have the ultimate rock and roll lifestyle, however still has feelings, for his one true love Mary, whom he has left behind.

Ben Elton has cleverly written the script to incorporate Rod Stewart’s songs to tell this love story, and each song has a purpose in the musical. Many of which are well known classics which were well appreciated by the audience.

The cast were amazing, all very talented actors, singers and dancers. The whole show had been cleverly choreographed and directed to show off and highlight individual talents throughout the evening, but also was able to incorporate the performers in brilliant routines and singing harmonies together. Many of the cast were also talented musicians and played their own instruments throughout the show, to compliment the main band.

The show itself got off to a fairly quiet start as Stuart (played by Ben Heathcote) sings to Mary but in a quiet and timid way and Mary (played by Jenna Lee-James) completely overpowers him with her strong voice. However as soon as Stuart has sold his soul to the devil he completely changes and his true talents are then revealed to the audience, and boy can he sing!!!

The set had been cleverly designed and there were many changes throughout the show. They had built a high platform, which was used to showcase the singers and dancers and the rest of the set worked around this, so they could easily change the props below to portray the various scenes, from garages, to bedrooms to stages on tour. I really liked the part where the tour bus that was in the middle of the stage cleverly rolled backwards and neatly disappeared into the set to reveal a new setting. All the set changes were done seamlessly, it was a job well done.

The costumes were cleverly thought out and fitted each scenario but at times were very racy, which again fitted to the musical and helped enhance the storyline. However there were several shrieks of excitement and shock from the audience when Stuart reveals his skimpy attire during one of the bedroom scenes. It certainly made my friend and I smile!!!

The cast themselves were faultless and put on an excellent show for the audience. However there were a couple of impromptu events that happened on stage and due to the charisma of the actors they handled these brilliantly and had the audience in stitches.

The show features Jade Ewen from the Sugarbabes, who plays Dee Dee, wow she has an amazing voice and is clearly very talented and it was a joy to listen to her perform her solo pieces.

During the second half of the show the audience were livelier and it didn’t take much persuasion to get the audience up on their feet towards the end of the show as the cast performed Do Ya Think I’m Sexy. This was followed by the full company performing a rendition of Sailing, to which the audience donned their paper sailor’s hats, which had been handed out as we entered the theatre at the start of the show. Everyone was clearly having a brilliant time and I can’t think of a better way to round off a day than with a good old sing a long and boogie. We then all joined in the Megamix at the end as the cast performed their bows. The rest of the cast then left, leaving just Stuart and the musicians to perform one last song, which was done with 110% Rod Stewart style.

The dancers were very sleek and very flexible, I only wish that I could even do half of the moves that they performed and from the audiences’ reaction to many of the moves they were clearly impressed as well.

Overall, the whole show had been well thought out and linked in flawlessly together to produce a fantastic evening’s entertainment. Not only did it show off the talented young actors, dancers and singers but also Rod Stewart’s amazing song writing ability. Being a musical you listen more attentively to the words of each song and you realise that many did tell mini stories in their own right.

I would definitely recommend this musical to anyone who has a love of music and wants to have a great evening, and would definitely go and see this again, there was a bit of something for everyone with a few slower contemplative numbers to the real full on songs like Do Ya Think I’m Sexy which had the audience on their feet.

Rating: 5/5 thumbs_up

Tickets cost from £17.90 to £41.40 (plus £4 transaction fee).

For more information or to book tickets click here or call the box office on 0844 8713024.

Grand Opera House York Theatre, Clifford and Cumberland Street, York, YO1 9SW

5Star

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