REVIEW | Break Free - Thespie
Break Free, Thespie
★★★★★
This review is also featured on West End Best Friend.
Back in the midst of the first pandemic, a new multimedia home for theatre emerged called Thespie, Thespie allows visitors to discover more than 1,000 theatre performances, artist talks, TV shows and live streams right under their fingertips. Since then, this platform has been growing into its own and now they offer their own live streamed performances too!
Break Free was probably up there as my favourite so far. It is a high quality, thrilling and empowering musical celebration with LGBT+ theatre artists leading the way for this 66-minute concert. There is real heart in this concert as a fantastic group of stage stars share with you their personal journeys and perform songs; either pop or musical theatre which have inspired them in some way. It was one of the most beautiful and empowering concert style performances I have witnessed and was executed in a celebration style that makes you feel good.
The cast for this show are exceptional. Some of the cast include Natasha Agnew, Paul Baker, Allie Daniel, Eloise Davis, Andrew Derbyshire, Nick Hayes, Mark Inscoe, Eleanor Kane, Millie O’Connell, Andrew Patrick-Walker Alex Thomas Smith, Courtney Stapleton, La Voix, Shona White, Layton Williams and Charlotte Yorke. All of these individuals come from all walks of life and personal experiences, representing just a snippet of the LGBT+ community and the strength it has within theatre. Their performances came at different levels and this built a great journey for us to experience as we watched it. It went from the emotional rendition of Alex Thomas Smith singing The Wall In My Head to gorgeous vocals from Thespie’s producer Aimie Atkinson as her harmonies perfectly align with Millie O’Connell in their rendition of the pop song Secret Love Song.
There were moments you could absolutely just get off your feet and bring your own disco into your living room. La Voix does a superb job in providing an uplifting number, whilst also making some tongue in cheek references to Boris and the 2-metre rule. The finale was safe in Layton Williams’ hands as he performed his unforgettable rendition of Out of the Darkness from the hit musical, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. It’s the perfect conclusion to a fantastic night of celebration.
Time passed so quickly whilst watching Break Free, it absolutely left me wanting more! The level of execution in the casting, the musical choice and visual set up for the concert were absolutely spot on. Absolutely was one of the best concert-style streams I’ve experienced within this last year. Thespie have set themselves high on the platform for this style of performance.
Proceeds from purchasing a ticket for Break Free go to Stonewall UK. Stonewall campaigns for the equality of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people across Britain.
You can access this stream from over 100 countries, and it is available to purchase in various currencies. You have on-demand access for 72 hours, therefore you can watch it again afterwards. Book your tickets and find out further information here.