MusicNorth East & YorkshireReview

Stars of the West End: Kerry Ellis and Louise Dearman – City Hall, Sheffield

Reviewer: Jacob Bush

Director: Matthew Hopkins

After being delayed from earlier in the year, Kerry Ellis and Louise Dearman finally take the stage on a tour where they perform a collection of popular songs from musicals, films and TV shows, along with some slightly less well known numbers, with the International Film Orchestra and, at this venue, the Let’s Sing choir.

The orchestra, under the direction of Matthew Hopkins, sounds great for the most part. They sound particularly stunning when playing music from more classical sounding shows such asWest Side StoryandLes Miserables, but when the play more pop sounding songs one couldn’t help but think the International Film Orchestra was lacking a piano or keyboard player or some guitarists. At times however, it was difficult to tell whether some of the lack of musical depth was due to the arrangements or due to a poor sound design.

The Let’s Sing choir are a nice addition to the proceedings, capably supporting numbers such as This Is Me from The Greatest Showman and Skyfall fromJames Bond. They make a great sound despite being fairly small in number but they do feel rather underused. They are only participating in 2 venues but it would have been good to hear them perform their own numbers rather than simply providing backing vocals to a small number of the songs.

Kerry Ellis is no stranger to the concert scene and she has the audience in the palm of her hands. She blows the roof off with a stunning renditions of Anthem fromChess and Memory fromCats. She also pleases the crowd with some fun audience participation in This Is Me, the song made famous inThe Greatest Showman.

Louise Dearman is utterly sublime. She brings some slightly more obscure musical theatre songs to the proceedings such as A Piece of Sky fromYentl and A New Life fromJekyll and Hyde.Her incredible acting ability comes through very clearly with her rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s Send in the Clowns being particularly moving.

The two also perform very well together but it’s a shame we don’t get to see them together more on stage when they’re not singing. They talk about being great friends but we don’t necessarily see loads of that, although their rendition ofWicked‘s For Good is clearly coming straight from the heart. Sometimes they share some nice titbits of their personal stories and experiences within the theatre industry but more of this would have only made the evening even more enjoyable.

Stars of the West Endis an enjoyable night out and it is an honour to see two such incredible performers on our local stages. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see Kerry Ellis and Louise Dearman, two of the best musical theatre performers in the country, perform of some of the best songs from musicals.

Reviewed on 30th October 2022.

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The Yorkshire & North East team is under the editorship of Jacob Bush. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.

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