Camelot in concert - London Palladium, Sunday 6th February

[notmymuse]

Although big queues to get in, big queues for programmes and lots of empty seats still at 5.58! Nice atmosphere though.

[fiyero]

Apparently programmes are sold out so no chance of purchasing on the way out. Not good for us upper circle peeps.

[interval99]

King Arthur - Ramin Karimloo
Lancelot - Bradley Jaden
Genevere - Lucy at Louis - stunning voice!
Newton Mathews - Merlyn ( program spelling)
Lucy server - narrator
Georgi mottram - nimue

To show in act 2
Mordred - ivano Turco
Morgan le fey - Julie Atherton

Trinity laban musical theatre as ensemble

Adam Hopkins musical director
Emma butler - director
Lily howkins - choreography

[BurlyBeaR]

[notmymuse]

I think it's an orchestra of 20, sounds amazing. I think either Burton sang Arthur lower than written originally or Ramin is having to take certain notes up an octave, the role sits a bit low for him perhaps, but you wouldn't notice. I've not seen Bradley before, lovely voice. They are basically having a narrator summarise the dialogue and just doing the score which is why it's able to speed through.

[theoracle]

Enjoyed bits of this but wanted to love it. I don’t know why but for some reason Ramin just didn’t feel like a King Arthur and I’m someone who really like Ramin Karimloo. Make no mistake though - the stars of this were Bradley Jaden and Lucy St Louis who got the biggest applause in the evening. I remember seeing Dr Zhivago at the Cadogan Hall a while back and there was a narrator there too. Are these standard for Lambert Jackson productions? Unfortunately I felt the narrator killed a lot of the dramatic elements for me. I get it’s to shorten the run time and in the end the show finished around 8:45 and I was out by 8:55. Still, I would’ve preferred to hear lines even if it was just watching the actors reading from the book. When Guinevere and Lancelot gaze at each other, do we really need to be verbally told they’re falling in love?

Nevertheless the music is absolutely gorgeous and it’s great to see so much enthusiasm from the Trinity Laban Ensemble. It’s terrifically sung by an absolutely stellar cast (again would’ve been lovely to have seen/heard more from the book). Not seen Cinderella yet so this was also my first time seeing Ivano Turco who’s delicious to watch. I reckon he’d be a great Sweeney one day…

The palladium was packed and agree that it was a huge pity to see programmes sold out by the interval. This happened at Zhivago too… All in all though, it was a good way to spend a Sunday evening and maybe we’ll get a full production one day somewhere.

[theatremiss]

Thoroughly enjoyed this concert tonight. It is a favourite musical and sadly one I’ve never managed to see other than on film or YouTube. Bradley Jayden was just superb, what a voice, same can be said for Lucy who was sublime and like a wisp of a woman. I was shocked to see Stage Door rammed afterwards, a whole sea of people spilling out onto the road. I do wonder if this might have a revival on the cards

[theoracle]

Feb 6, 2022 21:27:33 GMT theatremiss said:

Thoroughly enjoyed this concert tonight. It is a favourite musical and sadly one I’ve never managed to see other than on film or YouTube. Bradley Jayden was just superb, what a voice, same can be said for Lucy who was sublime and like a wisp of a woman. I was shocked to see Stage Door rammed afterwards, a whole sea of people spilling out onto the road. I do wonder if this might have a revival on the cards

I saw the same thing as I was leaving. Is stage dooring acceptable again as I thought it was still rather taboo to do so?

[richey]

Feb 6, 2022 21:46:00 GMT theoracle said:

Feb 6, 2022 21:27:33 GMT theatremiss said:

Thoroughly enjoyed this concert tonight. It is a favourite musical and sadly one I’ve never managed to see other than on film or YouTube. Bradley Jayden was just superb, what a voice, same can be said for Lucy who was sublime and like a wisp of a woman. I was shocked to see Stage Door rammed afterwards, a whole sea of people spilling out onto the road. I do wonder if this might have a revival on the cards

I saw the same thing as I was leaving. Is stage dooring acceptable again as I thought it was still rather taboo to do so?

There was quite a crowd outside the Palladium stage door last Sunday waiting for Boy George after Taboo

[interval99]

Quite enjoyed what there was of the concert but as others have noted this seemed a chopped version and it seemed they wanted it over and us out before overtime after eight rates hit.
Not sure I would race back to a Lambert Jackson production. Ten pound program was a rip off.

First time hearing the full score and on the whole sang by such a stellar cast it sounded good but the book seemed a muddled affair even allowing for the squashed version on show.

Newton Mathews did an amazing job to get Merlin character across but was barely on stage for a few minutes, Ivano had a bit longer stage time and made a far more convincing sneaky villain than he did as the goody goody love interest in Cinderella but again I doubt it was barely ten minutes In total.
Lucy voice was a revelation and overhead several people saying they would be looking to see her in Phantom.

Overall an enjoyable show but certainly not a evening out worth for the cost, made me want to look up the film but based on this show I wouldn't been rushing to see it on stage in the unlikely event it ever made it back as a production.
As for the narration it seemed to be written as if we were about five years old. With it often unintelligible due to be drowned out by the music and the over the top delivery it didn't help the show at all.
But full credit to the orchestra and cast and ensemble, when things did work it was a glorious sounding show

[theatremiss]

Feb 6, 2022 21:46:00 GMT theoracle said:

Feb 6, 2022 21:27:33 GMT theatremiss said:

Thoroughly enjoyed this concert tonight. It is a favourite musical and sadly one I’ve never managed to see other than on film or YouTube. Bradley Jayden was just superb, what a voice, same can be said for Lucy who was sublime and like a wisp of a woman. I was shocked to see Stage Door rammed afterwards, a whole sea of people spilling out onto the road. I do wonder if this might have a revival on the cards

I saw the same thing as I was leaving. Is stage dooring acceptable again as I thought it was still rather taboo to do so?

Personally I wouldn’t go near one (although I had to fight my way through it) and as a performer I’d have put my head down and just ran or pretended I was in my phone. Seen lots of pics of people with cast members 

[theatremiss]

Feb 6, 2022 23:15:56 GMT interval99 said:

Quite enjoyed what there was of the concert but as others have noted this seemed a chopped version and it seemed they wanted it over and us out before overtime after eight rates hit.
Not sure I would race back to a Lambert Jackson production. Ten pound program was a rip off.

First time hearing the full score and on the whole sang by such a stellar cast it sounded good but the book seemed a muddled affair even allowing for the squashed version on show.

Newton Mathews did an amazing job to get Merlin character across but was barely on stage for a few minutes, Ivano had a bit longer stage time and made a far more convincing sneaky villain than he did as the goody goody love interest in Cinderella but again I doubt it was barely ten minutes In total.
Lucy voice was a revelation and overhead several people saying they would be looking to see her in Phantom.

Overall an enjoyable show but certainly not a evening out worth for the cost, made me want to look up the film but based on this show I wouldn't been rushing to see it on stage in the unlikely event it ever made it back as a production.
As for the narration it seemed to be written as if we were about five years old. With it often unintelligible due to be drowned out by the music and the over the top delivery it didn't help the show at all.
But full credit to the orchestra and cast and ensemble, when things did work it was a glorious sounding showl

Lucy is a good Christine but her talents really shone tonight. I didn’t like Ivano, has some very odd mannerisms with a rather odd movement across the stage. Probably just me that thinks that. The orchestra and choir were rather good, in fact the conductor was extremely animated and on the overture I couldn’t keep my eyes off him bouncing around and nodding his head

[FrontroverPaul]

Feb 6, 2022 23:15:56 GMT interval99 said:

Quite enjoyed what there was of the concert but as others have noted this seemed a chopped version and it seemed they wanted it over and us out before overtime after eight rates hit.
Not sure I would race back to a Lambert Jackson production. Ten pound program was a rip off.

First time hearing the full score and on the whole sang by such a stellar cast it sounded good but the book seemed a muddled affair even allowing for the squashed version on show.

Newton Mathews did an amazing job to get Merlin character across but was barely on stage for a few minutes, Ivano had a bit longer stage time and made a far more convincing sneaky villain than he did as the goody goody love interest in Cinderella but again I doubt it was barely ten minutes In total.
Lucy voice was a revelation and overhead several people saying they would be looking to see her in Phantom.

Overall an enjoyable show but certainly not a evening out worth for the cost, made me want to look up the film but based on this show I wouldn't been rushing to see it on stage in the unlikely event it ever made it back as a production.
As for the narration it seemed to be written as if we were about five years old. With it often unintelligible due to be drowned out by the music and the over the top delivery it didn't help the show at all.
But full credit to the orchestra and cast and ensemble, when things did work it was a glorious sounding show

I also felt a bit short changed by the sub-two hour running time and Camelot could easily have been run without an interval. I was at the opposite end of the auditorium from the narrator and struggled to make out a lot of what she was saying. I didn't expect to hear all the dialogue but after getting so much more from Bonnie & Clyde and Taboo in their semi-staged concert formats this seemed too cut down for the book to have any meaning. Two narrators, positioned more centrally, with an increased and more dramatic narration between the musical numbers would have helped.

Anyone else notice several late mic turn ons in act two, didn't spot any at all in the first act.

Lucy St Louis was the break-out star for me - if she ever does a solo concert I'll definitely be there

[fiyero]

I have now recovered from my longer than anticipated journey home.
I enjoyed this last night but it was much shorter than I anticipated! I haven't seen the full show and knew I wouldn't be getting a full show but it did seem to whizz along!
I too noticed the issues with mics not always being up in time. The cast were great and I liked the setup.
I didn't like that it wasn't possible to buy a programme in the upper circle when we were kept separate from the downstairs people anyway (not like one entrance where we all go past the seller!). I probably wouldn't have got one anyway at £10 but they were sold out before the interval! I don't get the lack of programmes at so many things, surely the markup is huge that it is worth overordering rather than underordering?
Overall I may be wary of similar concerts but did have a nice evening.

[notmymuse]

Totally agree. It was a nice evening, but on reflection I went to hear a musical performed in concert format, but got the music from a musical performed (albeit very well), with a narrator saying what happened between. I think I would have gone again had I realised that, but advertising needs to be more clear and I'm left still wanting to see Camelot, dialogue and all. Yes, I noticed at least 3 late mic cues too in act 2.

[singingbird]

Feb 7, 2022 14:10:22 GMT notmymuse said:

Totally agree. It was a nice evening, but on reflection I went to hear a musical performed in concert format, but got the music from a musical performed (albeit very well), with a narrator saying what happened between. I think I would have gone again had I realised that, but advertising needs to be more clear and I'm left still wanting to see Camelot, dialogue and all. Yes, I noticed at least 3 late mic cues too in act 2.

Hearing this, I'm so glad I didn't go (I was working so couldn't, but may have done otherwise as Camelot, second tier as it may be, feels like a really major hole in my musical theatre education). If I want to just hear the songs from the show, and follow the plot, I can play the LP and read the liner notes. In a musical, the dialogue and songs are intertwined, surely. I can't see how it can ever be a satisfying experience to replace the dialogue with a narrator.

[interval99]

Anyone else had the earworm "it's May, it's May the lusty month May, the time when something something goes astray" stuck in their head today.

I presume it's the Camelot villagers going astray but couldn't make out all the words despite Lucy crystal tones.

Good to actually hear a tune in a show which stays with you after you leave, bad that you only partially know two lines of it and really wish you could forget it now.

[gra]

No one has mentioned Bradley’s surprising difficulties in ‘If ever I would leave you’
Same mispitched notes each time on ‘If ever I would leave’

Too low for him or what?
Anyway he got stupendous applause for the song!

[gra]

Also sad there was no time for Arthur to shout ‘Go boy!’ at the end.
One of the most emotional moments in the show.

[Oleanna]

Were any songs omitted?

[theatremiss]

Feb 7, 2022 15:51:49 GMT gra said:

Also sad there was no time for Arthur to shout ‘Go boy!’ at the end.
One of the most emotional moments in the show.

I agree, I was waiting for that. The chap that played the young boy was very animated and had a peculiar way about him. Not sure he’d manage the run off stage

[gra]

Several songs cut including ‘Fie on Goodness’ chorus Acr 2 opening. Can’t think why this needed to be cut.

’Take me to the fair’ sung by Guinevere tempting the three knights to joust Lancelot. Probably cut to lose three knights.

[interval99]

Act one
Overture
I wonder what the king is doing tonight
The simple joys of Maidenhood
Camelot
Reprise Camelot
Follow me
C'est Moi
The lusty month of May
How to handle a woman
The jousts
Before I gaze at you again
Finale - act 1

Act Two
Entr'acte
Madrigal & if ever I would leave you
The seven deadly virtues
What do the simple folk do?
The persuasion
I loved you once in silence
Guenevere
Farewell
Finale ultimo

[interval99]

Program details

Cover
Inside cover - advert for Joe McElderry tour
Page 1- details composers and cast and crew. The band members are listed but but not by instruments played.
Page 2 - advert for Collabro tour
Page 3 - bio for Lambert Jackson & cuffe &Taylor.
Page 4 -short bio on Lerner and Loewe and their musicals
Page 5 - bio of director/ musical director and choreographer
Page 6 - short synopsis
Page 7 - song list
Page 8 - Bradley and Ramin bios
Page 9 - Lucy and Julie bio
Page 10 - Newton and Georgi bios
Page 11 - Ivano and Lucy drever bios
And info on the trinity laban musical ensemble
Pages 12 and 13 adverts for cuffe and Taylor concerts
Back cover - plain

14 pages for ten pounds

[jgblunners]

Feb 7, 2022 20:02:29 GMT gra said:

Several songs cut including ‘Fie on Goodness’ chorus Acr 2 opening. Can’t think why this needed to be cut.

’Take me to the fair’ sung by Guinevere tempting the three knights to joust Lancelot. Probably cut to lose three knights.

What? Why would you organise a concert presentation of a musical and replace the (admittedly less than perfect) book with narration, only to then also cut the score?! I’m glad I didn’t bother with this - the LMTO concert a few years ago was performed in full and sounded sublime.