It was as though Broadway met Barbados last weekend during the 2018 staging of City Nights at Frank Collymore Hall. This year’s show took patrons on a musical journey, with selections from classic and contemporary Broadway musicals.
And what a show it was! Each performance was brilliant bar none, and made those in the audience feel as though they were right on stage with it.
Though not very well attended, in comparison to previous shows, those who came out got their monies worth and then some. From start to finish the performances were on point.
Patrons were thoroughly impressed with songs from popular selections of Frozen, Beauty And The Beast, West Side Story, Hamilton, Dela, Black Panther and more. And many of the songs were done with a Caribbean twist.
While it was an overall fantastic show and production, the second half was the highlight.
Dionne Timothy had the audience singing along with her as she took them way back in time with a rendition of Do-Re-Mi from the Sound Of Music soundtrack. As simple as the song was, it was clearly a popular one with the audience.
Timothy then took them along with her to West Side Story and sang the popular I Feel Pretty which was another great performance.
Then, the Marlon Legall Voice Project gave an excellent rendition of Seasons Of Love fromthe movie Rent.
One can never tire of hearing the orange-hair songbird Nikita sing. The love was felt all through the Frank Collymore Hall during her rendition of the Elton John classic Can You feel The Love Tonight? from the popular movie The Lion King.
She followed up with other hits from the movie – Circle Of Life and Hakuna Matata. She was joined by her brother Jabarri Browne for these two songs and he too added his own twist to the songs. They were backed by the Marlon Legall Voice Project.
These were fantastic performances that just made you sing along, even if you didn’t want to.
There was never a doubt that Ch’an could sing, but just in case there was any lingering, she erased it all with her performance of And I Am Telling You from the Dream Girls sound track.
During the goosebumps-raising performance, Ch’An displayed her expert vocal ability and even received a standing ovation for it.
Kellie Cadogan and James Leacock closed out the show with the megahits Beauty And The Beast and Time Of My Life from Dirty Dancing.
Putting their own twist to them, the duo did justice to these classics and brought the curtain down on an all-around good night.
In the first half, one of the standout performances was definitely young Trinity Clarke who sang Let It Go. A brilliant performance that gained her a standing ovation.
All the performers were backed by the 1688 Orchestra & Collective. (DB)
