★★☆☆☆
Smashing to be back in the Albert Hall for a Prom, of course, even with the arena area half roped off to allow the orchestra more room to breathe. But I do wish Saturday night’s party with a quintet of singers, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the conductor/deviser Richard Balcombe and a silly array of flickering lights had been better.
There’s probably limited critical mileage in complaining that four of the items in this “Broadway” programme came from film musicals, or that the selection was 90 per cent conservative. More importantly, too many singers delivered their goods without the right flair or, just occasionally, any flair at all. Also, from my seat in the stalls fully audible words were rare, thanks to a combination of brazen orchestra, amplification, building echo and voices that squeaked or smeared the notes. If Cole Porter had been in the Albert Hall expecting to hear his tricky lyrics, he would have been so disappointed.
Some things were certainly worth cheering. Conductor and musicians may have fallen short of the panache expected when the John Wilson Orchestra is going full tilt, but their clarity and punch still made a spangled delight out of the Slaughter on Tenth Avenue ballet from On Your Toes (one of the seven Richard Rodgers items on the bill), or the other original orchestrations.
And Nadim Naaman was a definite plus, delivering Oh, What a Beautiful Morning! and others with sensitivity and genuine emotion. He held the stage and was pleasantly personable — something I didn’t feel about Clarke Peters, overly nonchalant, or Jamie Parker, whose Some Enchanted Evening was passion-free, not enchanted at all.
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Louise Dearman was more audible than Katie Hall, though she disappointed with her watery crooning in All the Things You Are, the only time the genius songwriter Jerome Kern popped up. Platform presentation was modest and sluggish, but the audience remained patient and enthusiastic. It was, after all, a Saturday night out, even if the show wasn’t quite golden, or indeed Broadway.
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