Robert Meadmore performed in cabaret at the Crazy Coqs, London
Robert Meadmore performed in cabaret, Love Songs, at the Crazy Coqs, London.
No stranger to the London stage, West End performer Robert Meadmore has created a new one-man cabaret show. He has appeared in various cabarets before, including Ivor Novello and the Great British Musical and a duet performance with Annabel Leventon at the Crazy Coqs, but this is his Crazy Coqs solo debut.
Opening off-stage with his first number, ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Morning’, and then standing to one side after entering, we were reminded without distraction of the performer’s mellifluous resonant voice, and his mischievous humour as he brought more songs from Oklahoma! into a medley.
Inspired by a YouTube clip of Julie Andrews discussing songs about love, Meadmore presented a selection of favourite love songs, mostly drawn from musical theatre, from touching ballads such as ‘If I Loved You’ and ‘All the Things You Are’ to Celtic folk songs like ‘If Irish Eyes Were Smiling’.
Meadmore’s style is simple with few theatrics, choosing good songs and singing them well, all in ‘legit’ (classical) vocal quality. The variation in emotion is rendered by excellent phrasing, drawing meaning from the lyrics and an impressive use of musical dynamics.
Notable numbers included ‘Willow Weep For Me’, a beautiful original arrangement and piano accompaniment by musical director and pianist Matthew Freeman of Amanda McBroom’s ‘The Rose’, and ‘I Love a Piano’, during which Freeman was able to demonstrate more of his skills to great effect.
The stand-out medley, however, was a darker presentation of the little played ‘When Your Lover Has Gone’ (EA Swan) and Rodgers and Hart’s’ ‘Spring is Here’, also chosen, we were told, by Freeman.
Meadmore’s patter was interesting and well delivered, with enough personal anecdote to keep us amused and a good sprinkling of songs’ musical history included as well.
This is without question a very enjoyable evening, well presented and a pleasure to listen to. A suggestion for further development might be to construct the show in such a way as to signal a clearer change of pace in the second half from the romantic first instalment, perhaps with some sardonic or spiky songs about love, or using a different genre. A stronger structure would add even more surprise and variety of emotion to the evening.
As it stands, the programme and Meadmore’s performance entertain throughout, boosted by a good interjection of stories, humour and audience interaction. He deserves to do well with this venture.
Fiona-Jane Weston
Readers may also be interested in:
Our Time – KT Sullivan and Jeff Harnar Sing Sondheim – Crazy Coqs – Review
Shades of Blue – Carole J Bufford – Crazy Coqs – Review
Brent Barrett – Life Is, The Songs of Kander and Ebb – Crazy Coqs – Review
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.