Main Men of Musicals was performed at Cadogan Hall, London.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
Continuing a string of successful one-night-only concerts at Cadogan Hall, Lambert Jackson presented Main Men of Musicals with four of the West End’s leading men taking centre stage. This show follows There is Nothin’ Like a Dame and West End Women which celebrated West End women and the evolution of female roles in musical theatre. However for this night the message was: “Let’s hear it for the boy(s).”
Ben Forster, Luke Bayer, Trevor Dion Nicholas and Liam Tamne joined forces for this one-off celebration of leading men and the their iconic numbers in musical theatre across time. Starting with the 1950s (Paint Your Wagon) and taking us all the way to Dear Evan Hansen, which is set to open in the West End later this year.
One of the greatest aspects of concerts like this is the atmosphere in the room and it was completely buzzing before anyone had a chance to sing a single note. Together, the main men opened the show with ‘Hello’ from The Book of Mormon and we certainly all felt welcome.
Ben Forster delighted audiences by stepping back into his roles as The Phantom and Jesus from two Andrew Lloyd Webber classics and while ‘Music of the Night’ earned him a much-deserved standing ovation, his take on ‘Gethsemane’ from Jesus Christ Superstar could not have been more breathtaking.
Luke Bayer for Evan Hansen! Not only does he sing ‘Waving Through a Window’ flawlessly but he really presented the raw emotion that comes with the song, making it pretty hard to imagine anyone else in the role.
However, everyone was also overjoyed to see him reprise his role as Jamie New while singing ‘And You Don’t Even Know It’. It was virtually impossible to sit still throughout that number. He was joined by the Michael Xavier Masterclass and Goldmans Stage School and it was impossible to determine who was having more fun singing this fan favourite.
We’re used to seeing Trevor Dion Nicholas in the animated role of the Genie in Aladdin but for this show he put the lamp aside and showed us something different. ‘Mr Cellophane’ from Chicago and ‘Make Them Hear You’ from Ragtime really showed us his softer side, but he still cracked us up by heading into the audience and finding someone to sing ‘If You Were Gay’ from Avenue Q directly to.
Liam Tamne closed Act I with The Rocky Horror Show’s ‘Sweet Transvestite’ in a fierce pair of heels and vocals to match. He really gave us his full range as he then switched it up to ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’’ from Oklahoma! to open Act II and get everything buzzing all over again.
We can’t write this without mentioning the incredible talents that show what the future holds for musical theatre’s main men (including competition winners Luke Redmore and Rhys Bailey). Bailey delighted us with his stunning take of ‘Where Is Love?’ from Oliver! and Redmore blew us all away with ‘Out There’ from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Audiences went wild for MXM and Goldmans Stage School whenever they were on stage but their version of ‘Seize the Day’ from Newsies stood out. The Spirit Young Performers Company also got us all hyped with a fantastic Jersey Boys medley.
We also got some delightful duets and quartets such as ‘Agony’ from Into the Woods, ‘Moses Supposes’ from Singin’ in the Rain and ‘Luck Be a Lady’ from Guys and Dolls, but the final Boublil and Schönberg medley deserves a special mention, just for the audience reaction. As the first bar or so of ‘Bring Him Home’ from Les Misérables played, the whole crowd audibly responded with so much joy. It was a wonderful way to end the night and hearing the main men sing ‘Stars’ together was just beautiful.
There was just so much talent on stage, including the main men and all the young stars that joined them. It was fun, uplifting and everyone definitely went away humming at least one of those iconic tracks.
Tal Fox
Readers may also be interested in:
Interview: Luke Bayer on celebrating the Main Men of Musicals & playing roles that inspire him
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