JADAR

★★★★☆

For the third year running, a stellar cast of West End stars takes the stage of the Lyric Theatre for one night, and one night only, for an evening of spooky musical hits, Halloween movie show tunes, and a sprinkle of modern day pop classics reimagined on stage. Produced by West End Musical Productions, a Black-owned, London-based production company, this is one of many musical theater nights which invites the audience into a unique theater going experience.

The MC of the night was Shanay Holmes, who is currently Nancy in Cameron Macintosh’s Oliver!, running at The Gielgud Theatre. Holmes did a fantastic job of hyping up a semi-reluctant audience, encouraging singing along, standing up and dancing – sacrilegious behavior at any West End show, and the audience took a bit of convincing to let loose.

The show opened with a bang, with esteemed violinist Sally Potterton, dressed in harlequin attire, playing an eerie and magnetic solo from The Nightmare Before Christmas, setting the tone for an evening of Halloween classics, followed up with a magical rendition of ‘The Music of the Night’ from The Phantom of the Opera by Jon Robyns.

I was delighted to watch Tobias Turley as Seamor singing ‘Grow for Me’ from Little Shop of Horrors and Erin Caldwell belting ‘The Wizard and I’ from Wicked (the next Elphaba? I wouldn’t be surprised!).

Courtney Bowman stunned as Anne Boleyn, singing ‘Don’t Lose Ur Head’ from Six, and to my surprise, this was the song most audience members sung along to at full belt. While I haven’t had the pleasure of watching Six before, I definitely felt the FOMO after her performance and downloaded the soundtrack on my way home.

Even though there were a few mistakes from the cast, there was something humanising and fun knowing even seasoned pros can lose their footing and still put on the show of a lifetime. As they say, the show must go on!

For me though, the star of the show was Nathania Ong – a 25-year-old actress taking the theatre world by storm, and you can certainly see why. Her performance of ‘Last Midnight’ from Into The Woods was a tour de force which wiped Meryl Steep’s performance from the 2014 movie clean from my mind. Edgy, modern, powerful and terrifying, made even more amazing when Ong finished singing, threw up a peace sign with a smile, and skipped off stage.

Along with musical hits from fan favourites, such as the aforementioned and Heathers, there were also pop hits like ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears and ‘One Way or Another’ from Hocus Pocus II (originally by Blondie). While as a die hard musical theater fan, I wouldn’t have been opposed to a set list of just musical theatre hits (I was sorely missing a little bit of Sweeny Todd), I can appreciate this made for a more rounded show for the less musical theatre-inclined audience members.

All in all, this was a great show for all the family, and musical theatre fan or not, by the end of the night everyone was on their feet, dancing along to this spooktacular Halloween treat.