Friday, October 27, 2017

FROM BROADWAY TO BALLROOM



Producer: Liza Beamish
Co-Producer Christine Harris and HIT Productions
Q Theatre, Queanbeyan to 28 October

Reviewed by Len Power 26 October 2017

The concept for ‘From Broadway to Ballroom’ is quite a good one – two singers present a range of well-known songs from Broadway musicals, opera and elsewhere in a production woven together with colourful, eye-catching ballroom dancing.

Producer, Liza Beamish, is also one of the two singers in the show.  She’s an appealing personality and there’s certainly a voice there.  She’s paired with Lachlan Baker, a big guy with a big voice but their singing was uneven during the performance.

The show needs an imaginative director to bring out the promising potential of the concept.  Currently, there’s minimal staging and the performers mostly stand still and sing with movement-limiting hand-held microphones.  Their banter between songs is too casual, often irrelevant and slows the show down.  It needs more thought and tighter scripting.

The two dancing couples, who have won ballroom dancing awards, performed well but better ways need to be found to showcase their work as part of the show.  Some of the dances seemed to have little to do with the songs.

With the stage of the Q Theatre opened up to its widest and deepest expanse, the vast playing area dwarfed all of the performers, especially when working at the back of the set in front of the huge white backdrop.

The women’s costumes were colourful and flattering.  Apart from that, there were just some colour changes on the backdrop and an occasional dappled light effect on the stage floor.

The music for the show was pre-recorded.  There were often long waits between announcing a song and the music starting.  The Andrew Lloyd Webber medley would have been better if the music for each song didn’t have to fade down before the next one came up.

The show is too long.  They should drop the unfunny Dean Martin number with Baker as a burping drunk and his awful ‘if-Elvis Presley-lived-to-be-an-old-man’ medley.

There’s potentially a good show here but it needs more work to make it soar.

Len Power’s reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7’s new ‘On Stage’ program on Mondays from 3.30pm and on ‘Artcetera’ from 9.00am on Saturdays.