Unlimited: The Songs of Stephen Schwartz – Thespie.com

Picture: Danny Kaan

Unlimited: The Songs of Stephen Schwartz is streamed by Thespie.com.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

This is the first of Thespie’s four streamed December concerts under the Reunited banner, the reunion in this case being nine performers who have all appeared in Stephen Schwartz’s huge hit Wicked in its first 14 years.

Two of them, Alexia Khadime and Liam Tamne, were also reunited far more recently as stars of the same composer’s Prince of Egypt at the Dominion until the world changed forever in March and will never be the same again.

For theatreland it has been catastrophic with many of its leading lights having to find alternative work in supermarkets, waiting on tables or driving Deliveroo vans to keep the wolf from the door.

So well done to Thespie, a bright new website dedicated to providing a digital platform for theatre and the arts, for putting together these musical theatre concerts which the public can have streamed to their home at £12.50/£15 a throw with 25% off if you buy all four.

Anything which helps strapped theatricals pay the rent is obviously to be applauded in these chaotic times and they make a classy job of this initial offering, using the stately opulence of the Grade II Listed Kimpton Fitzroy Hotel in Bloomsbury as a live backdrop.

Schwartz himself opens the show with ‘Corner of the Sky’, the best-known song from Pippin, and then it’s over to the singers. After a second dose of Pippin, the lively ‘Magic to Do’, neatly tackled by Khadime, Nikki Bentley and Carl Man, we are introduced to the cast by MC Alice Fearn.

The high-spot for me is the earthy contralto of Melanie La Barrie (Madame Morrible in Wicked), knocking Godspell’s ‘Turn Back, O Man’ out of the park, but everyone will have his or her favourites.

The sweet-voiced Dianne Pilkington fits ‘Meadowlark’ from The Baker’s Wife perfectly, Tamne’s gentle tenor likewise does full justice to ‘The Spark of Creation’ from Children of Eden, and from the same show Oliver Tompsett is, as ever, blissful on ‘A World Without You’.

Children of Eden (1991) is one of three musicals Schwartz mined from a biblical source. Godspell (1971) and Prince of Egypt of course are the others and the latter is due to resume next year after being so rudely interrupted by Covid.

It was the last West End show I reviewed before the March lockdown and, to be frank, I didn’t think much at the time of the ten new songs Schwartz wrote for the premiere of a show that was originally an animated movie adapted from the Book of Exodus.

Certainly none had the instant appeal of ‘When You Believe’ which won Schwartz a Best Song Oscar in 1999 and has understandably been retained for the stage musical. Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston sang it on Oscars night, a hard act to follow, but Fearn and Bentley give it a fair go here.

Tamne, who plays Ramses, one of the Prince of Egypt leads, makes the most of his chance to sing arguably the best of Schwartz’s new material ‘Footprints On the Sand’ (“that’s all we are”) which is Moses’ song in the show.

‘Beautiful City’, written for the Godspell movie, puts Man in the spotlight, he having earlier duetted ‘On the Willows’ with Pilkington from the same show.

We also have a taste of Pocahontas (1995) so six Schwartz musicals are represented. The 50-minute compilation finishes on a high with Khadine, Fearn, Bentley, Pilkington and Sophie Evans joining forces for a powerful ‘For Good’ from Wicked.

With Nick Barstow in fine form on piano, there is very little to complain about although I did think there was a lack of warmth. Maybe the fault lies with the composer who doesn’t do cosy nor is he big on humour.

The other three Reunited shows are ready to roll and are being staggered. Next up on 10 December is Oops! I Streamed It Again, a trawl through rock, pop and contemporary musical theatre by a team of five from the original cast of & Juliet, including Olivier Award winner Cassidy Janson.

On 17 December Girl Power honours girl bands through the decades with a cast boasting members of the original cast of Six and on 21 December All I Want For Christmas is Theatre is unleashed. This is a big-cast show full of classic Christmas songs.

You have the stream for 72-hour use with the first three shows and the seven days of Christmas for the fourth. Even Thespis, the 6th Century BC Greek poet credited by Aristotle as the first to tread the boards as an actor playing someone other than himself, would approve.

Jeremy Chapman