Lucy Thomas – Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Lucy Thomas at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Now and again, maybe only a handful of times in a lifetime, you hear a voice so pure, so effortlessly beautiful and powerful when it needs to be, it gives you goosebumps, grabs your heart and so blows you away that the world suddenly feels a better place.

Talk about starting at the top, the majestic Theatre Royal Drury Lane was the ambitious choice as the backdrop to the West End debut of Lucy Thomas, the YouTube and TikTok phenomenon who has such a huge round-the-world fan base she will shortly hit the one million mark for subscribers. She didn’t fill the 2,196 seats in Drury Lane, that will come later, but the rapturous reception from the 1,000-plus audience made you think it was full.

Her most popular cover, Leonard Cohen’s classic ‘Hallelujah’, has had 51 million views on YouTube and more than one billion plays on TikTok. On both platforms Thomas’ recording of ‘Hallelujah’ has been listened to more often than any other version – and there have been plenty of those.

In six years, since the release of her debut album Premiere at the age of 14, this utterly natural and delightful young lady from Wigan has made 67 videos, mostly covers of pop classics, and six CDs if you count the original concept album of Rosie The Musical.

All this will be old hat to the hundreds of Thomas groupies who never tired of giving her standing ovations from the moment she walked on stage but I guess there are still thousands of music lovers who have never heard of her… they will.

With music and lyrics by her mentor Chris Broom, Rosie The Musical is due to be unveiled next year, probably starting in the provinces, with Thomas in the title role and Will Callan, recently Marius in Les Misérables, as her suitor. The entire second act of Thomas’ London bow was devoted to 12 Rosie songs, from ‘One Day’ to the rousing ensemble finale ‘We Can Change The World’ – and every one a winner. Broom knows how to write good songs and, in Thomas, he has the perfect instrument to put them across.

Standouts were ‘I Still Believe in Love’ (which is not Thomas’ song when the show gets lift-off as it is sung by another character), ‘Suddenly’, ‘Starlight’ and the brilliant ‘Hold On’ duet with Callan.

The first half was devoted to covers of the classic material that has made her such a streaming success. ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ were epic choices to take us to the break and she made a great stab at ‘She Used to Be Mine’ from Waitress, a hard song for a 20-year-old without a care in the world.

The voice is so rich and lush with a lovely timbre to the lower register that some of us would be happy listening to her singing the telephone directory. Not once did she struggle with a note or force it. This young lady would be an asset to any West End musical and it’s just a question of which way she wants to go.

Above all, Thomas was always herself, humble, giggly and making no attempt to poshify her Lancashire vowels. If it’s good enough for Gracie Fields and Cilla Black, it’s good enough for Lucy Thomas!

Guests Callan and Dutch tenor Milan van Waardenburg weighed in with ‘Empty Chairs at Empty Tables’ (Callan) and ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ (Van Waardenburg) to give Thomas time to get her breath back, and her duet with kid sister Martha, only 14 and with a very sweet voice herself, on ‘When You Believe’ was the cue for another standing ovation. Together they warm the heart.

Backed by a 32-piece orchestra (directed by Robert Guy) for the first time, Thomas clearly relished the big Theatre Royal stage – having her own pianist James Breckon helped settle any nerves. She absolutely loved the audience and they loved her back. One day when LT is a national treasure and an international star, those lucky enough to have watched her bloom on such an iconic stage one chilly night in October 2024 will be telling children and grandchildren “I was there when she started…”

Jeremy Chapman