Thank God for Radio 2. While musical theatre is, without doubt, one of the most popular forms of theatre there is and an entire export industry has been based around Britain’s expertise in creating it, it is strangely little sung about on our radio airwaves. Commercial radio all but ignores it, and though BBC Radio 4 used to have an excellent weekly programme, Stage and Screen, hosted by Edward Seckerson, it was strangely decommissioned a couple of years ago (though Ed has maintained the show’s presence electronically by migrating it to an online platform).
It has instead been left to Radio 2 to fly the flag for musical theatre, where Michel Ball and Elaine Paige fill the Sunday mornings and early afternoon slots; but the station - which has the greatest reach of any BBC Radio station, attracting some 13m listeners a week, according to the most recent Rajar figures - is also strong on generating fresh, unique content, particularly through the institution that is Friday Night is Music Night — the world’s longest-running “live music” radio programme that has been running since 1952.
Last night it held a live recording at the London Palladium for Lyrics by Don Black, a slightly belated 70th birthday tribute concert (nearly two months after Don’s actual birthday on June 21) to one of our most prolific, yet paradoxically personally unsung, musical theatre heroes of the last half century.
Lyricists, outside of the attention-seeking rhymes and rhythms of the likes of Cole Porter or Stephen Sondheim, typically attract little critical notice, beyond having their work being unfairly and routinely dismissed as at best serviceable and more often than not, bland. Yet words are what matter most in a storytelling genre like musicals; and Don Black is a master craftsman of their art. Like the man himself, they are unobtrusive yet erudite, charming and witty.
His words have entered the national (and international) consciousness, thanks to such film hits as his Oscar-winning title track to ‘Born Free’ and Bond themes like ‘Thunderball’, ‘Diamonds are Forever’, ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ and ‘The World is Not Enough’. But it is his long devotion to duty in musicals that have marked him out in my book for even greater admiration, and the fact that, even at 70, he has still not lost his youthful enthusiasm for them - last night we heard that he is working on two shows even now, Bonnie and Clyde and The Count of Monte Cristo, with the composer of the latter, Michel Legrand, on hand to conduct the orchestra as Ryan Molloy and Maria Friedman sang two of the songs from it.
Yet Don has to gracefully face defeat more often than not: musicals are, of course, notoriously tricky to pull off, and he has frequently seen them go belly-up, most notoriously with The Prince and the Aviator, a show that previewed on Broadway in 1981 but failed to even open, or Merlin, Dance with the Vampires and Dracula, all of which did open there but didn’t stay open long; or West End turkeys like The Bar Mitzvah Boy, Dear Anyone and Budgie.
Last night wasn’t, of course, about those failures but about his more celebrated successes; but I mention them because they present a fuller picture of a career that has negotiated lows as well as highs, and prove that like all great artists he has served his time on the coalface of disappointment as well as the peaks of success. And last night, of course, was another peak to put beside his other successes. As a star-studded cast - from Craig David and Gary Barlow to Lulu and Marti Webb, and from Elkie Brooks and Joe Longthorne to Lee Mead and Matt Rawle - tackled hit song after hit song, you also got a sense of the extraordinary range of collaborators he has worked with, from John Barry and Andrew Lloyd Webber (the two he personally paid tribute to in his curtain call speech), Elmer Bernstein, Jule Styne, Quincy Jones and others.
His personal affability is, I’m sure, one of the qualities that make him so easy to work with; I’ve known him for a number of years, and have often said that he is one of the three nicest people in the business (along with choreographer Anthony van Laast and producer Peter Wilkins). But even though I see him and his wife, Shirley, of nearly 50 years, at West End first nights all the time, I was suddenly taken back last night by the fond hello I received from someone who looked just like Don, though it strangely seemed as if he had aged suddenly in the few weeks since I’d last seen him. In fact, it turned out to be his brother!
As Don took to the stage at the grand finale, I was able to see that he looked just the same as he always has, and much, much younger than his 70 years. “I thought this kind of thing only happened to Stephen Sondheim”, he announced; and though long overdue, it was great that it has finally happened to Don. This spectacularly well-produced event also finally gave lie to the poor production values of Sunday night charity galas we’re more accustomed to seeing at the London Palladium, such as the Jerry Herman one I attended here earlier this year, which are always compromised by seemingly-improvised light and sound. There was just one sound glitch last night that required Gary Barlow to sing “Born Free” a second time; no one, however, was complaining over the opportunity to hear his tender, terrific rendition again.
gary barlow was fantastic wow what a fab voice
I was also lucky enough to be at the Palladium last night, and whilst I enjoyed every performance (what amazing songs Don has written!) I have to say the stand-out moment for me was Lee Mead singing 'Love Changes Everything' from Aspects of Love... all I can say is WOW!
wonderful show gary barlows performance was amazing
Don was also responsible for a great song, called HAPPY EVERYTHING, sung by Maggie Moone. It came joint first in the UK's Song For Europe in 1980, but lost out on a 2nd vote to the less superior LOVE ENOUGH FOR TWO, by Prima Donna. Shame - cos Don could well have won Eurovision with HAPPY EVERYTHING.
I'm delighted to hear that I hadn't missed it but it's on Radio 2 this Friday (22nd) evening. I was worried it went out live - so I'll look forward to hearing it Friday.
What a night Gary Barlow put on an amazing performance!
Lee Mead was also simply brilliant.
It really was a brilliant evening, although I did find Craig David's performance disappointing. The stand out performance for me was Lee Mead singing Love Changes Everything. He really has a wonderful voice. I also enjoyed Lee's rendition of Some Of Us Belong To The Stars, from Billy, which he sang beautifully and in a northern accent no less! There was a recent story in The Stage linking Lee to the role of Billy and Michael Parkinson announce last night that Billy is returning to the West End, just as he introduced Lee. Conclusions could be drawn from this and I hope that The Stage will soon be able to confirm that after he leaves Joseph in January we will soon be seeing Lee in the West End again, this time playing the lead role in Billy!
I am really looking forward to listening to the show on friday on BBC2
What I can not understand is why fabulous show like this was not on TV.
I am looking forward to listening to Jonathan Ansell and Hayley Westenra, from what I have heard from people who were there ,a performance not to be missed
Hello all
I went to LP on Sunday ,to see Lyrics and gosh what a fantastic show
Saying that,there were only 1 acts that was not great the singer who played the guitar just not my cup of tea.
Craig David to my ears he was out of key some of the time so he was just ok.
For me themost enjoyable act was by Jonathan Ansell(who now the youngest tenor who got to no.1 in classic charts) and Hayley W.
Hayley wore the most beautiful dress and Jonathan was very dapper
They sung "Amigos Para Siempre" ("Friends For Life") and what a most wonderful performance
Eat your heart out other artists ( :) ) for no one else could ever top it
Im so looking forward to Jonathan new album thats coming out called Forever (I got that on preorder)
He also going to be in The Mikado at Richmond Theatre and he got his 1st solo tour Night at The Opera in Oct and November
Yes you guessed it I got tickets for those shows too
I am looking forward to it being aired on radio ahh if only it were to be on television
Don Black, one of my heroes, can't believe I missed this show, nor that there'll be no TV coverage. Ah well, as you say Mark, thank God for Radio 2
Wonderful evening - numbers that stood out were "Love Changes Everything (Lee Mead), "Take That Look off Your Face" Marti Webb, "Born Free" Gary Barlow, "As If We Never Said Goodbye" Maria Friedman and "Amigos Paras Sempre" Hayley Westernra & Jonathan Ansell (although he suffered from nerves a bit at the start.
All in all the evening just showed what a wonderful lyracist Don Black is.
How wonderful to see Joe Longthorne up there too after being so poorly. What a voice! He was absolutely fantastic, infact the whole show was world class. I don't think there was a single bad performance and what wonderful songs Don has composed. Personal favourites were by Peter Grant, Lulu, Lee Mead, Jonathan, Hayley and Joe Longthorne.
I went to this concert and it was truly wonderful. All the performances were excellent (although I thought Craig David was a bit 'off' singing Ben). The stand out for me was Gary Barlow with his simple, straight-forward and effortlessly beautiful rendition of Born Free. I wouldn't go quite as far as saying it was better than Matt Munro (who could?) but he was pretty damned close!
For me the STAR was the fabulous ELKIE BROOKS.
What a great night. I was very upset to find that Elkie Brooks sang only one song WHY????The song she sang was SAM. This song never meant anything to me, after hearing Elkie Brooks version it has become a GREAT song.Elkie's vocal was superb.Elkie is no doubt the best female singer to come out of the U.K. My opinion as an American...
What a great night. When Elkie Brooks came on and sang SAM , I thought GREAT could not wait for Elkie to sing again. I was totally disappointed when this great singer did not sing again that evening.
Elkie could have sang any of the other songs so much better than some of the other singers.What a loss for the audience that night at the London Palladium.
Elkie has a huge fan base ,which proof lies in the Guinness Book of Records, as the most charted female singer in the U.K.in the last three decades.