Saturday 30 August 2008

The sound of musicals

You can now apparently get the "Mamma Mia!" soundtrack on CD. Odd - I've owned a copy for several years now. It's called "ABBA Gold: Their Greatest Hits".

I remain unconvinced by musicals that grab a pile of songs by an artist or group and craft a wafer thin plot around them ("We Will Rock You", I'm looking at you). There have been far too many that have disappeared without much of a trace. I think Barry Manilow tried with "Copacabana", Billy Joel gets an outing in "Movin' Out", Take That's Greatest Hits are bastardised in "Never Forget" - the list goes on. In a change of tack, "Jersey Boys" uses the music of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons to tell the story of, well, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. This seems like a sound move, until you realise that it's a "fictionalised" story. Which surely means, "we made it up over a coffee 'cos it fit the songs". Sounds familiar?

This leads me neatly onto "I'd Do Anything", the search for the nation's Nancy (which was obviously a tie between Graham Norton and John Barrowman - John Humphries was disqualified for having a truly terrible syrup). True talent always shines through, as aptly demonstrated by the final of "Last Choir Standing" which is on TV as I type this. I don't care who wins, both finalists contain more talent then you'll see if you watch the entirety of the current series of "The X-Factor" from start to finish.

Back to Nancy, and Mrs Steve and I had the pleasure of visiting the Faenol Festival in Bangor last Sunday evening. The main reason for this was the presence of a certain Mr J Barrowman, but joining him on the bill were Daniel Boys (one of the lads who wasn't Joseph in "Any Dream Will Do", but who has a bloody amazing belter of a voice) and Jodie Prenger - the nation's real Nancy.

Her performance of the full version of Send In The Clowns was even more moving than the truncated version she performed to so much acclaim on the show. She also moved me with a quite beatiful reading of Out Here On My Own from "Fame". The nation chose well.

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