Aspects of Love, Diamonds Are Forever,To Sir With Love… do you recognise these songs? You might know them, but did you know these and hundreds of others were written by British lyricist Don Black. They all feature in his new West End show, From The Heart.
With narrative by Don himself, we start with 5 actors on stage including Shona Mcgarty (Eastenders) and a wonderful accompaniment of pianist (Joseph Church) and bass player (Oliver Copeland) as Don explains this is his own review of his penmanship. Actors Caroline O’Connor, Frances Mali McCann, Micheal D Xavier and Clive Rowe take it in turns to sing songs from Don’s writing, which were especially commissioned for this show. The songs in the first half of this 90 minute show are based around love and loss and although they’re not famous songs, Black’s trademark humour makes every one of them stand out and memorable. Don’t worry, these aren’t sad songs about love, more comical and loosely set around a theme of each actor. We found ourselves laughing out loud at some of the lyrics, and the animation of the actors as they’re singing the songs, with very few props, made the songs even more hilarious!
As the first section of the show end, we were then treated to a special performance for opening night. Michael Ball OBE (also known as THE Michael Ball!) came out to sing what is possible one of Don Black’s most famous songs; Love Changes Everything from the Don Black/Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Aspects of Love. What a treat! I never thought I’d see Michael Ball sing on stage with what must be his most famous song, and the audience loved it.
The show finished with Don introducing a medley of his most famous work. Although I knew Don Black wrote lots of pop and stage hits, I didn’t realise how many were his work. Many James Bond themes, songs from musicals and shows and the odd Top Ten hit too. Each one was recognisable and so well performed that with each new song line, you were realising that these were all written by Don Black and you didn’t even know it.
The cast were fabulous, not only hitting every note but delivering the funny lines with panache and excellent comic timing. The evening flows seamlessly without an interval and especially by the end, there’s lots of songs to sing along to. The fact that there was so much humour involved meant that it was easy to sit back and enjoy yourself and let the songs take over.
A fabulous night with lots of songs jokes, surprises and quality showmanship.
