The Bodyguard made an extravagant entrance on the Adelphi Theatre stage when I caught Beverley Knight and newcomer, Tristan Gemmill take the lead in the West End musical.
Bright lights sharply introduced the matinee Queen of the Night, startling the audience into a state of awe as Beverley Knight began to showcase Thea Sharrock's rendition of the 1992 thriller romance film.|
Gemmill made a superb transition from screen to stage and proved himself in his strong-and-silent type role,“ I have the best job in the world,” says Tristan. "It’s an honour to stand there opposite her and just watch and listen.” allowing Beverley to fully shine in the limelight.
The West End performance adapted the original storyline to develop and explore the main character's relationship with her family, especially her sister, Nicki, which accentuated Rachel's spoilt personality in a subtle manner, complimented by the use of dramatic levels and clever sophoclean irony.
Knight's voice was no surprise, crafted in the gospel choirs of Wolverhampton, with more than two decades experience of selling millions of records, it was almost as if her diaphragm was a blood relation to Houston herself; however, the issue remains that when you hear a Whitney song, you expecting Whitney riffs. Heather Headley was originally cast for the West End show and I wonder if she would have tackled it in the same way. Knight has a huge voice, astounding, in comparison to her small frame but at times I was disappointed that Whitney riffs were missed, but my gosh - can that woman belt! Her vocal performance was very polished and not a note out of place. I'm sure it would have been fantastic if there was a live band - Oh, I relish at the thought!
Call me harsh critic, as this is may be reminiscent of my Thriller review, but the dancing... was not worthy.
In a performance, an audience member should be able to take a picture in mid-routine with each dancer captured in the exact same position as the next. Even from as far up as I was, there were dancers that were two beats behind and it hurt my eyes, not to mention my soul.
An impressive element of this production was the set design, props to Tim Hatley (symbol clash). The traverse-like settings for the club scenes and the cabin scenes in the beautifully crafted and detailed house were phenomenal. There was almost no design budget in sight - so it was most definitely a highlight for me! The stalker scenes were tasteful and dramatically effective. The artistic elements and use of strobe lighting with a mix of slow motion lighting heightened the tension perfectly.
Although i'm not a fan of American accents in West End shows, especially if it supposed to be a thick east coast accent that sounds like it's from New Orleans, but it the set really superseded all elements of dislike. Another highlight was the set of Knight's One Moment in Time performance! The use of lights that perfectly reflected off her carefully selected sequin lights was atmospheric! I sat in my upper circle seat and took in every single ounce of awesomeness that was there for me to be engulfed in. Then Knight got everyone on their feet for I Wanna Dance With Somebody, ready and in place for a well deserved standing ovation for the everyone involved.
