Lush

Lush
Cadenza Chamber Players. Conductor: Lucas D. Lynch. Guest Artists and Choir. Lynch & Paterson Production. Princess Theatre, Wolloongabba, Brisbane. 31 August 2019

The historic Princess Theatre was host to The Best of Musical Theatre on Saturday, a collection of songs, mainly male and female diva anthems, from six of the most popular musicals from the past three decades – The Phantom of the Opera, Anastasia, Les Misérables, Sweeney Todd, Jekyll & Hyde, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The interesting thing about the selection was the inclusion of story-songs not normally programmed in a concert.

The wonderful voice of Lionel Theunissen, a regular community theatre performer, not only sang the Phantom’s “Music of the Night” but also brought drama to Sweeney Todd’s “Epiphany” and The Hunchback of Notre Dame’s “Hellfire”. With Meg Kiddle opposite him singing Mrs Lovett, he also found the humour in “A Little Priest” (Sweeney Todd), while she made a delightfully saucy meal of “The Worst Pies In London.”

Tenor Michael Nunn impressed with Anastasia’s “My Petersburg”, but had his centre-stage moment with blackened teeth and waistcoat being outrageously vulgar in Les Misérables’ “Master of the House”.

The best ensemble performance was “Prima Donna” (The Phantom of the Opera), which had been vocally arranged for eight voices, whilst “The Bells Of Notre Dame” pleased with it’s harmonic sound.

Shannon Foley brought a rich baritone to Jekyll & Hyde’s “This is the Moment”, but it was the girls - Samantha Paterson, Ebony Hamacek, Ellen Tuffley and Kiddle - who added some raunch with “Bring on the Men” from the same show. The mash-up of “I Dreamed a Dream” and “On My Own” from Les Misérables was vocally a bit messy, Drew Mason’s vocals on “Out There” were underpowered, but the encore of “Someday” (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) was just beautiful.

Lucas D. Lynch kept a tight rein on the orchestra tempos, but it was Paterson’s vocal arrangements that were deservedly the stars of the show. With a 29-voice choir at her disposal and eight guest artists, the sound was indeed Lush!

Peter Pinne

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