This sleek and unique virtual concert experience celebrates some of the best leading lady roles.
Producing virtual concerts has certainly proved the best way for producers to ensure that audiences at home get their musical theatre fix as we head to nearly a year since theatres have all been allowed to fully open.
In a new twist, this newly conceived concert style puts the audience in control thanks to Ryan Carte’s innovative and entertaining concert allows audiences to select which performance they want to see.
Divas, villains, princesses are just a few types of characters who audiences can expect to come across over five ‘choose your player’ screens, recreated by some exceptional actresses including Jarnéia Richard-Noel, Kayla Carter, Emma Kingston and Aisha Jawando to name a few.
It has to be said that while each individual concert is short, it has been sleekly put together in terms of the way in which it has been filmed and put together coherently – thanks to Jamie Scott-Smith’s skillful filming and smooth editing by Ben Evans. No matter how many selections that you make, every segment fits perfectly together – including the way in which characters interact with each other in between the audience making their selection. I loved the way in which each character is given a slight introductory scene before bursting into song.
But it is also clever in the way in which there is such a diverse range of characters and songs, mixing classic musicals such as ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and ‘Into the Woods’ with more contemporary ones such as ‘Kinky Boots’ and ‘Waitress’. It gets the balance just right to ensure that there is plenty for all audiences to enjoy – and maybe even discover something new.
All of the performances are of the highest quality, but I particularly enjoyed ‘World Burn’ from Mean Girls, performed with great attitude by Kayleigh McKnight but with a tinge of humour that works well. Meanwhile, Lauren Byrne offered a really spine tingling rendition of ‘Journey to the Past’ from Anastasia and Aisha Jawando was delightfully playful and mocking as the witch from Into the Woods, performing ‘The Last Midnight’.
If you are watching more than one concert, then the script and interaction between characters is consistently the same in terms of the script – but each performer still manages to make their own mark on the script to keep it sounding individual and original to each character.
It is a clever and imaginative concept for a concert and I can only imagine just how complex the process was in putting it all together – but it is an impressively bold concept that works really well to add something unique to the way in which concerts are bought to audiences at home.
By Emma Clarendon
Two ticket types are available for the production. £10 Single Stream Tickets, which give access to watch the concert once at their selected time, and £15 Unlimited Stream Tickets which provide one day-access to the concert, allowing the viewer to experience as many combinations as they wish within their allotted time. The concert will be available internationally from 22nd February-7th March. Tickets can be purchased at barntheatre.org.uk/barn-at-home.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐