The 2012 Momentous Musicals show at London’s New Wimbledon Theatre saw West End Theatre stars performing songs from ‘momentous’ musicals in the history of theatre.
Rachel Wooding, best known for playing Meat/Scaramouche in We Will Rock You but also Amber in the original London cast of Hairspray the Musical and the title role in the UK tour of Evita. In Momentous Musicals, she aptly performs You Must Love Me (from Evita) and No One But You (Only The Good Die Young) from We Will Rock You but also more unexpected songs like So Much Better (from Legally Blonde) and For Good (with Gareth Gates) from Wicked. Rachel’s voice adapts to any style of song, from the loud, gritty, rocky songs to the more beautiful I Know Him So Well (from Chess) alongside Emma Williams.
I love listening to Emma Williams sing. One of my favourite shows in the last few years has been the Chichester Festival production of Love Story, which transferred into the West End in December 2010 for a ten week run. Unsurprisingly, Emma doesn’t sing anything from Love Story on the CD (as Love Story is not really a Momentous Musical to most people). She does however give one of the best performances in the show with her version of the well known Cabaret song Mein Herr and also Hushabye Mountain from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Love Changes Everything (from Aspects of Love) and an impressive version of Gethsemane (Jesus Christ Superstar) come from G4’s Jonathan Ansell and the beautiful Daniel Boys takes on renditions of West Side Story‘s Maria and Being Alive from Company. Daniel has a heart-melting voice and could sing the phone-book and I’d still listen to it with a smile on my face.
Gareth Gates seems to stand out on the CD with a voice that was made for musical theatre and one that gets progressively better with every show he is in (Joseph, Les Miserables, Legally Blonde and most recently Boogie Nights). On the Momentous Musicals recording Gareth sings Close Every Door To Me (from Joseph), Empty Chairs and Empty Tables (from Les Mis) and a wonderful performance of Why God, Why from Miss Saigon.
The Momentous Musicals CD release ties in nicely with the announcement that the show will go back on tour around the UK in July 2013 for 4 shows (Wimbledon, Torquay, Bradford and Manchester. This year’s show will feature brand new arrangements of classic and recent musical theatre songs including Let Me Be Your Star from Smash, What I Did For Love (A Chorus Line) and One Day More (Les Misérables).
For more information and to book tickets to see the show, or the album click here.