Pictures: Danny Kaan
WhatsOnStage Awards, streamed by Stream.Theatre from the Turbine Theatre, London.
The 21st WOS Awards can surely claim to be unique as the first awards show to have no awards! They have been rolled over to next year because of you-know-what.
No awards is not strictly true because 21 Angels who went beyond the call of duty to help others less fortunate than themselves during Covid lockdowns did receive theatre ticket prizes for their much-appreciated efforts.
In lieu of nominating performers and creatives, theatregoers were asked to put forward someone in their life who had been a source of love and support during the pandemic – samaritans who had gone the extra mile.
What a super idea! Five of the 21 were singled out for special mention: Rita Zeta-Jones, Alex Young, 11-year-old anti-bullying ambassador Charlie Kristensen, Lucie Devine and Steph Channing. For those sitting alone at home for weeks and months, the Angels were indeed a godsend.
The good news is that productions eligible for 2021 WOS awards will be included in the nominations for 2022, so shows which opened from December 2019 to 16 March 2020 will still have the opportunity to be voted on.
Into just 65 minutes, this show, hosted by Jodie Prenger and Tom Read Wilson, managed to shoehorn videos of some of the Angels proposers, ten songs by top West End artists plus Oscar Conlon-Morrey and Amy Hart highlighting some of the work being done by and for the theatre community. It was a bit of a waste of the funniest man in town.
The songs either represented shows cut short by Covid or were looking ahead to new ones which would have launched last year but have had to wait.
Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Cinderella is one in the latter category. It will now open at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in July. Promoting the show here was Ivano Turco with the song ‘Only You, Lonely You’ he performed on the televised Musicals: The Greatest Show last month.
He is the 21-year-old who went straight from Urdang Academy to audition as a dancer for Cinderella but the Noble Lord and director Laurence Connor saw him as the right man for the key role of Prince Sebastian. He sings ‘Only You, Lonely You’ brilliantly.
Pick of the evening for me, in a show co-produced by Turbine Theatre’s artistic director Paul Taylor-Mills, was the Rent duet ‘I’ll Cover You’ from Dom Hartley-Harris and Alex Thomas-Smith, returning to their Hope Mill roles in the Manchester production which had to be cut short. Hartley-Harris’ rich vocals were particularly admired.
Cedric Neal is another voice I never tire of hearing. ‘Gotta Start Somewhere’ from Back To The Future The Musical, an unwieldy title if ever there was one, was given the full Neal treatment with the show gearing up for a West End opening at the Adelphi.
‘Head Over Feet’, sung by Siubhan Harrison, was interesting as it comes from Jagged Little Pill, which has not crossed the Atlantic but ran from December 2019 until Broadway went dark, gaining 15 Tony nominations last autumn. Its rock musical score by Alanis Morissette and Glen Ballard is inspired by the 1995 album of the same name by Morissette.
Some numbers were too shrill for my taste but that comment certainly didn’t apply to Jamie Muscato’s ‘Something’s Coming’ from West Side Story which opened the show or the Matt Croke-Danielle Fiamanya number ‘Crazy Rolling’ from Moulin Rouge!
Giving a powerful ending to the entertainment were 11 members of the touring cast of Hair getting up a head of steam with ‘Let The Sunshine In’, a sentiment we all echo in these troubled times.
Jeremy Chapman
NEWS: Lockdown Angels honoured at the 21st Annual WhatsOnStage Awards
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