Producer: Liza
Beamish
Co-Producer Christine
Harris and HIT Productions
Q Theatre, Queanbeyan
to 28 October
Reviewed by Len Power
26 October 2017
The concept for ‘From Broadway to Ballroom’ is quite a good
one – two singers present a range of well-known songs from Broadway musicals,
opera and elsewhere in a production woven together with colourful, eye-catching
ballroom dancing.
Producer, Liza Beamish, is also one of the two singers in
the show. She’s an appealing personality
and there’s certainly a voice there. She’s
paired with Lachlan Baker, a big guy with a big voice but their singing was
uneven during the performance.
The show needs an imaginative director to bring out the promising
potential of the concept. Currently, there’s
minimal staging and the performers mostly stand still and sing with
movement-limiting hand-held microphones. Their banter between songs is too casual,
often irrelevant and slows the show down.
It needs more thought and tighter scripting.
The two dancing couples, who have won ballroom dancing
awards, performed well but better ways need to be found to showcase their work
as part of the show. Some of the dances
seemed to have little to do with the songs.
With the stage of the Q Theatre opened up to its widest and
deepest expanse, the vast playing area dwarfed all of the performers,
especially when working at the back of the set in front of the huge white
backdrop.
The women’s costumes were colourful and flattering. Apart from that, there were just some colour
changes on the backdrop and an occasional dappled light effect on the stage
floor.
The music for the show was pre-recorded. There were often long waits between
announcing a song and the music starting. The Andrew Lloyd Webber medley would have been
better if the music for each song didn’t have to fade down before the next one
came up.
The show is too long.
They should drop the unfunny Dean Martin number with Baker as a burping
drunk and his awful ‘if-Elvis Presley-lived-to-be-an-old-man’ medley.
There’s potentially a good show here but it needs more work to
make it soar.
Len Power’s reviews
are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7’s new ‘On Stage’ program on Mondays from
3.30pm and on ‘Artcetera’ from 9.00am on Saturdays.
