Claude-Michel played ‘Bring Him Home’ at the Royal Festival Hall on 7 December as he accompanied Alfie Boe for this very special song. It was incredibly moving to watch him play live in a big concert hall like this and he received thunderous applause from the audience.
Alfie Boe’s concert Tour is in fact titled: ‘The Bring Him Home Tour’. He sung an eclectic mix of songs from many different genres including pop and classic rock songs, musical theatre songs and even showed how musical boundaries can be merged as he sang ‘O Sole Mio’ and the lyrics of the second half became ‘It’s Now or Never’.
Other memorable songs were: ‘Some Enchanted Evening’, ‘Maria’, ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, ‘When I Fall In Love’, ‘Tell Me It’s Not True’, and ‘In My Daughter’s Eyes’, which was accompanied by a delightful black and white movie of Alfie and his three year old daughter Grace.
Alfie was joined by some other special guests: Tom Fletcher from McFly, Melanie C, Laura Wright, a little girl called Shakira who sang ‘Castle On A Cloud’ and Matt Lucas, who duetted with Alfie for ‘The Impossible Dream’ and contributed various funny comments throughout the evening.
Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer were seated in the audience and each took a bow after Alfie had introduced them.
This performance was streamed live at cinemas all over the UK.
Further tour dates can be found at www.alfie-boe.com/events and the DVD of the concert will be available on 5 March 2012.
The Songs of My Life, a concert celebrating the life and career of Peter Polycarpou, took place at the Garrick Theatre on Sunday 11December. Peter along with guests Simon Bowman, Claire Moore and Hannah Waddingham sang a diverse mix of Musical Theatre songs. Perhaps two of the most memorable were ‘Bui Doi’ from Miss Saigon and a rather wonderful Greek accented take on ‘Master of The House’ with Claire Moore as Madame Thénardier!
theater2k is a brilliant, informative website which traces West End and Broadway Musical Theatre history from 2000 onwards.