Review: A Night at the Musicals at Wales Millennium Centre
*I received two tickets in exchange for this review. All opinions are 100% honest and my own.
Last night Brummie Gal in Cardiff and I headed out to review A Night at the Musicals at Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. We haven’t had a mother/daughter date night in a while, so we were excited to hit the Bay and have a good old sing-along!
Review: A Night at the Musicals at Wales Millennium Centre
I absolutely love attending Wales Millennium Centre, it’s such a gorgeous venue, and the staff are so lovely, it’s not hard to have a good time there!
A Night at the Musicals looked to be an exciting show, with songs from Les Mis, Phantom and more on offer. We were super excited and it was so lovely to see the Novello Orchestra upon the stage, with David Mahoney as conductor and presenter. He really was the heart of the show, and he had such an adorable stage presence, with little jokes and funny ways to engage the audience.
The vocals were performed by Danielle Hope (Wizard of Oz, Rock of Ages, winner of BBC’s Over The Rainbow), John Owen-Jones (Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Tiger Bay The Musical), Kerry Ellis (Les Misérables, Wicked), and David Thaxton (Phantom of the Opera, Only the Brave).
I really loved the power from the orchestra, with some musical elements (without song) being the highlight of the show for me personally. It’s so powerful to see them perform live, with energy and passion at the core of the Novello Orchestra. Their Chicago performance was absolutely epic!
When it comes to vocals, there was one performance of the night that stole the entire show for me – John Owen-Jones as Phantom was spectacular. He sang The Music of the Night with such power, control, passion and emotion. I ended up with goosebumps and fighting back tears as he performed this song, and it’s made me desperate to see Phantom on stage once more! It was so stunning, I’m still getting tummy flips thinking about it!
My mother thought his performance was fantastic, but a lot of the other performances lacked the emotion for some songs, and I have to admit, I agree. It felt like emotion was lacking in songs that normally make me weep, which was a little disappointing.
I really liked the energy upon the stage, and the relationships between the singers, as well as the children’s choir; they really lit up the stage with their backing vocals for The Circle of Life! I also loved David Thaxton’s more thoughtful performances compared to the loud and rocky tunes.
I would have loved a bit more variety in the second half (four songs from Les Mis felt a bit too much), and I felt my attention drifting as this continued. Having said that, performing Don’t Stop Believin’ at the end really ramped up the overall energy of the crowd, and left everyone buzzing as they left the theatre.
We had a fab night, and I’m very keen to catch their Movie Mixtape version in November, with songs from Moulin Rouge, Dirty Dancing and more!
Did you attend last night’s show? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below…
