West End Musical Halloween, Lyric Theatre Review (2024)
Reviewed by Amelia for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
West End Musical Brunch has been running since 2022 and provided audiences with some amazing concerts over the years. They’re back this year with the fabulous West End Musical Halloween, which promised a concert filled with our favourite songs from the darker side of musicals. Having never been to one of these events, I was incredibly intrigued to see what would be in store. The show wasn’t entirely coherent as a whole, but I’ve not gone in expecting a well oiled machine due to it being a one night concert. But was it a trick or a treat?
We kicked off with a classic from The Addams Family to really set the tone for the first act. Shanay Holmes was a wonderful host and got the audience engaged and excited from the get go. There were stellar performances from Tobias Turley and Erin Caldwell, especially their duet of ‘Dead Girl Walking’ from Heathers. Caldwell, as always, hit some riffs that most could only dream of hitting. I do think my entire life has been changed after hearing her sing ‘Wizard and I’, and I can only hope we see that casting at some point in her career.
Ahead of a run in Sheffield this year, we had two songs from The Little Shop of Horrors which are always crowd pleasers. Despite a little hiccup on the lyrics, Courtney Bowman and Tobias Turley produced an exceptional ‘Suddenly Seymour’ that really begs for a West End revival ASAP. With Bowman headed to Kinky Boots next year, it’s always amazing to be reminded of how incredible her vocals are - a real, raw talent. I think she could honestly just stand on the stage and sing one note and I’d leave the theatre satisfied.
Speaking of ‘Satisfied’, Nathania Ong, who is currently playing Eliza in the West End production of Hamilton, gave one of the best versions of ‘World Burn’ (Mean Girls) I’ve ever heard. She brought the house down with ‘Last Midnight’ from Into The Woods and again in the second act with Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. Ong proves that she has earned the title of ‘rising star’ and is truly one to watch in the industry. I will be booking to see her in Hamilton immediately.
A real highlight came from Sally Potterton on violin, who was absolutely captivating. With all the songs being played from a backing track, it was brilliant to have Sally playing over the top of some of them and opening both acts with violin renditions of some spooky classics.
I felt quite disappointed with act two, as we only had one musical song, with the rest being from Halloween films. I’ve never been to a ‘West End Musical’ event before but I assumed that the key part of that was the songs being from actual musicals. I love ‘Monster Mash’ as much as the rest of them, but I wasn’t quite expecting West End legend Jon Robyn’s to be singing it, especially not with the lyrics printed out for him to read. This became a theme in the second act, with several stars having the lines even written on their hands to avoid getting the songs wrong. Unfortunately this didn’t even work in some cases and the lyrics were still not there. It’s a shame really as the vocals were unmatchable, but I can’t help but wonder why a bit more rehearsal didn’t go into the show. After all, the casting was announced at the beginning of the month so I’m surprised that most songs weren’t committed to memory. I was also confused when Courtney Bowman and Jon Robyns entered as neither were announced as cast. There was also the disposition of Zachary James, which leaves me to wonder if that eliminated the Hadestown song we were promised. The information on the official website and Instagram states that both Sweeney Todd and Beetlejuice the Musical would also be included, but neither were. We had a finale from the Beetlejuice film but I would’ve much preferred something like ‘The Whole Being Dead Thing’, ‘Say My Name’ or ‘Dead Mom’.
To summarise, I feel I can’t review the show as a whole because the two acts felt so different. The first act was filled with ballads from dark musicals and some lovely duets from the likes of Little Shop of Horrors and Heathers. This is exactly what I was expecting from this concert and so, I wasn’t really sure what to do with the second act of just Halloween karaoke. Nonetheless, the stars were off the charts and have left me wanting some of this casting to come true in the near future - I’ll be patiently waiting for Erin Elphaba and Tobias Seymour, thank you very much.
West End Musical Brunch is celebrating the best time of year with another concert on the 16th of December: West End Musical Christmas.
★★★★
