Something Wonderful - Rodgers and Hammerstein Concert, RFH

I went to this, loved it, and found it built my anticipation for a couple of upcoming projects.

Sadly Julian Ovenden couldn't make it, but Michael Saviour xaved the day!

You could tell he came in at the last minute, not because his performance was in any way under-rehearsed (he was his usual charming, sometimes sensitive, sometimes cock-of-the-walk, self), but because he got a shabby introduction from the Royal Philharmonic Conductor, who introduced him as the man who "played Joe Gillis opposite Petula Clark at ENO." I almost choked, realising that the Petula Clark in question was "Petula Glenn Close Clark," who usually refers to herself as neither "Petula" nor "Clark."

I recall Xavier beautifully duetting on "People will think we're in love," and soloing on "Oh What a Beautiful Morning," "Younger than Springtime" and "Edelweiss," but it was Xavier's solo rendition of "Some Enchanted Evening" that I can't forget, wishing it to go on forever, so smooth and charming and gentle was his build, and so swooningly romantic the payoff.

But it wasn't Xavier that had me thinking about upcoming projects, since delightfully, he's in everything anyway. The shows I had in mind were "Side Show" at Southwark Playhouse, with Louise Dearman, and "Rent" at St. James Theatre, with Ryan O'Gorman.

Dearman was cheekily chirpy in her tongue-in-cheek rendition of "I Enjoy being a Girl," wistful delivering "So Far," driven and fun singing "My Favourite Things," but it was the sheer scope of her romanticism of "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy" that has stayed with me. Now, I can't wait for "Side Show."

O'Gorman's epic deep barritone filled his "Lonely Room" with passion, and provided a perfect foil to Emma Kingston's sweet soprano for "My Lord and Master," yet it was his performance of the unremarkable Allegro number, "A Fella Needs a Girl," that really demonstrated that O'Gorman can magically turn a mediocre song into a showstopper. It was SO MUCH more rousing and storming than the version of that same song in Southwark's recent production. Had O'Gorman been at Southwark, he would have made the audience weep, or alternately, wake up.

Emma Kingston was my favourite Vanessa in London's "In the Heights," on account of the warmth of tone of her soprano voice, so it was lovely, when after the orchestra played that famous intro, it was her scaling sweetness that brought the raked hills of seats of the Royal Festival Hall wonderfully alive to "the Sound of Music."

The evening climaxed to a quartet of voices, performing "You'll never walk alone" together, reprised immediately for an encore, as it appeared the performers had not actually prepared a specific encore number, (nor had organisers prepared to memorialise the evening by printing a programme, for that matter) though the audience demanded one. Still, this suited me, as this song is truly one of my favourite things, and with Ryan O'Gorman's bass flowing directly into Michael Xavier's tenor, which then floated into the clouds of the duetting sopranos of Emma Kingston and Louise Dearman, it was utterly lubricious and luscious, soaring and sentimental, and I squeezed a tear out, or two, before checking my diary to make sure I was booked for "Side Show" and "Rent."