Tell Me on A Sunday, Sept 4, 2008

Tell Me on A Sunday

By Andrew Lloyd Webber & Don Black

Her Majesty’s Theatre, until Sept 14, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:**

Tell Me on A Sunday, the story of a young woman looking for love in New York, is a vehicle for a musical theatre star. Sarah Brightman sang it, Bernadette Peters spent three years wowing audiences with the version called Song and Dance and Denise Van Outen did it recently. 

Jolene Anderson is popular on the small screen and was the best of the non-singers on It Takes Two but it does both her and the show a disservice to cast her in it.

Anderson’s voice could work in an ensemble show, but it is too light and lacks the light and shade needed for the range of songs and her performance is too small for a solo show on a huge stage in an enormous theatre. She drowns in the elaborate steel and glass set, and disappears amongst the numerous video screens depicting New York.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black’s songs are varied and need emotional range and a passionate characterisation. Without this, the show is a mediocre concert. The tile song has supremely poignant lyrics and music and the show has other memorable love tunes. both ballads such as Unexpected Song, Come Back With The Same Look In Your Eyes, and raunchier numbers such as Who Needs Men or Take That Look Off Your Face and the acerbic attack on LA women, Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad.

The updated references and the change from an English to an Aussie girl do not help the show and the direction lacks imagination and consistency.

Kate Herbert