“White Christmas - A West End Gala”
Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham.
December 21^st 2001.

Conductor: Martin Yates, West End Theatre Orchestra.

Soloists:
Scott Davies.
Andrew Halliday.
Sally Ann Triplett.
Jill Washington.

House Lights Down, LX Que1, Go!

The orchestra starts playing and out come four top West End Performers with microphones gripped in their hands. And out starts the first number, “Company” by Stephen Sondheim.

I was glued to my seat as I watched the four performers especially Scott sing out this jazzy tune, it was brilliant, Scott got the words a wee bit muddled however he quickly corrected him self and was straight back into the swing of it.

‘Company’ finished and Andrew & Scott left the stage, leaving Sally Ann & Jill on stage to sing the next number, “I Still Believe” from Miss Saigon, not a show I’m completely familiar with but I knew a few of the numbers and they impressed me, so it was no surprise that this song did the same. It was wonderfully sung by the two female singers of the night and they fully deserved their round of applause.

Then came a nice introduction to the Show by conductor Martin Yates. He also within the show introduction, introduced the next number which belonged to our man, Scott. He gave Scott a very nice introduction and complimented his work in Phantom, which is obviously always nice to hear.

‘Starlight Express’ was the next number and yes I was very surprised when I read the programme to see Scott an Operatic Baritone singing this song, even though I couldn’t actually see it happening, I was obviously more than willing to see how it went. And I can tell you now, it has to be one of the best renditions of this song I’ve heard and I’m not just saying that because it’s Scott, believe me or not I was wowed by this song! He gave it such an uplift and more power, it was lovely to see this song sung like this. And I loved the added touch of whispering “Starlight Express” down the mic at the end, a nice end to a very nice song!

Scott leaves the stage and next up is Jill Washington for her solo; “I Could Of Danced All Night”. First thing I noticed about Jill was her remarkable voice, I’m envious, I’d love to have a voice like that! It really complimented the song too. I must admit I’m not a fan of this show at all but this song was nicely sung by Jill and I enjoyed listening to it a lot.

The show progressed and I was getting more and more exciting because the song I was yearning to hear was coming up pretty soon, however we’ve got a couple more songs before hand.

Andrew was up next for his solo, which was “Can You Feel The Love Tonight?”. I’m a fan of The Lion King so I was looking forward to this song a lot and I wasn’t disappointed, Andrew has a lovely voice which really does compliment the song and he thoroughly deserved his big round of applause at the end.

Well one more song until my ‘treat’ for the night. Sally Ann’s time to shine, singing “As Long As He Needs Me” from Oliver! I’ve heard Sally Ann before this show and really loved her voice and it’s so much nicer live! She sung this song perfectly, it’s not my favourite song by all means but none the less I really enjoyed it and loved the emotion she put in to it.

Okay, so the time has arrived when Hayley Baron (Me) was in complete heaven!

It was time for…The Phantom Of The Opera!

And it wouldn’t be a wise thing to not use a certain actor and actress who have played the lead roles in London for this song would it? No? That’s why they sang this wonderful piece of music for us lovely audience. It’s time to release the secret weapons, Jill Washington and…Scott Davies!

The world famous intro starts playing, my heart starts beating more than it’s normal speed and I watch Jill Washington walk out onto the stage as if she had just seen a ghost (the Opera Ghost?) and she starts singing; “In Sleep He Sang To Me…” as she’s getting to the end of the first verse and who shall gracefully walk on the stage in character? Yes, Scott. Jill sings “The Phantom Of The Opera, Is There Inside My Mind..”. Scott slowly lifts his microphone, then bang it hit! “Sing Once Again With Me…” his voice soared around the auditorium and my eyes widened, I gripped the arms of my seat and sat in total Heaven for the rest of the song.

The one thing that amazed me so much too was that they were really acting as The Phantom & Christine too, but minus the costumes, it certainly was a Phantastic sight to see!

The Phantom Of The Opera finished and Scott left the stage leaving Jill on. The intro to ‘All I Ask Of You” begins and Andrew walks on. They begin the song and I can imagine the night sky of Paris behind them as they sing this show favourite in the loving way it should be sang. It occurred to me then and there that Andrew must have been a lovely Raoul in his time in the show, his voice suited the character so much, it was almost like watching the show again.

‘All I Ask Of You’ finishes and it’s back to Scott again singing the third and final number from The Phantom Of The Opera. It could only be ‘The Music Of The Night’. He grabs his mic stand and the Orchestra start playing, Scott closes his eyes and begins the soft song. I can only guess that he was imagining himself on the stage of Her Majesty’s playing the Phantom when he was singing this because it was absolutely perfect, he used his hands to portray the emotions of the Phantom within the song. The line “Take You Where You Long To Be” echoed the whole auditorium with the power of his voice. It was then it hit me that I was sitting looking at my inspiration, for a long time I wanted this. This was the perfect Christmas present!

My ride through The Phantom Of The Opera had finished and Scott stayed on stage for the final song with his colleagues.

‘Do You Hear The People Sing?’ From Les Miserables, so I didn’t think it would get better, hmm?

LES MISERABLES!! Scott was going to join as ValJean in London but as Hans Peter Janssens (The then ValJean) didn’t leave Scott didn’t join. However this was more than a good enough substitute!

It was so powerful and spine tingling the perfect end to Act 1.

The Interval, well I certainly needed a breather after that first Act. So we went to the bar and enjoyed some beverages, me on Coke, I was only 16 at the time, little me! However I was freezing, too much air conditioning + cold glass = freezing Hayley. I was more than eager to get back and enjoy Act 2, so when the house call was made, I made no hesitation to get back to my seat!

Act 2 started with a ‘Gershwin Medley’ I didn’t know much about this Gershwin dude, I still don’t in all honesty. As it went along, I recognised a few numbers and it was a really good start to the beginning of Act 2!

Now the next song, I really enjoyed, you saw Scott in a totally different element from the usual broody, murderer who is in love with a young, attractive aspiring Opera Singer. The number was;

‘A Couple Of Swells’ from Easter Parade. At the start, Scott comes on stage but there’s no Jill (whom he was doing the number with) so he starts looking around for her. He still can’t find her so he asks Martin, he shrugs. So Scott looks out to stage right and Jill comes up behind him and makes him jump! A nice wee skit to start off the song. Like the rest of this act I hardly know anything about this number really, so I can’t comment totally and what was good or not. But I really enjoyed the positive vibe of the song and the movement that was incorporated into it, made it a nice number to watch.

Andrew is up again for the next number which was “Anthem” from Chess. Again I’m not familiar with the show but from what I’ve heard of it, it sounds like a pretty good show. Andrew sang this song with much pride and power and his stage presence was great. Nice wee song for Mr.Halliday.

All the soloists were back for the next bit which was a medley from the West End smash hit; “Mamma Mia”. I confess I’m not an ABBA fan but I must also confess I did really enjoy this and a few times I had to restrain myself from running on the stage grabbing a mic and start going for it, especially when Scott started singing; ‘The Winner Takes It All’. That was a bit of a shocker because I did want him to sing that!

The final solo for tonight came in the shape of; ‘Maybe This Time’ from the film version of Cabaret, sung by Sally Ann. I’m a fan of Cabaret. I think it’s a brilliant show and film which is highly relevant and educational plus the numbers in the show are really kewl! So I had no objections what so ever to hearing this. Brilliant final solo from Sally Ann!

The final medley of songs was the Christmas Medley because it was Christmas at the time! Within the medley there was; ‘White Christmas’ & ‘Chestnuts Roasting’ which Scott sang, I wasn’t to keen on that one in fact I don’t think I was alert too much because it was getting nearer the end of the show, thus me on the search to meet Scott, so I was thinking about that a lot.

Curtain Call has arrived they all took there numerous bows and went off stage. Well that was that or so I thought…

What’s that familiar tune I’m hearing? No, it can’t be! And it was; One Day More from Les Miserables. Then I heard Scott’s voice singing, “One Day More…”. I could not believe what I was hearing. Scott singing Jean ValJean’s part in this song. I was in disbelief!

The was the perfect finale to the perfect show! And Scott is the perfect ValJean!

Martin announced that the soloists will be signing programmes & CD’s in the foyer. Well let’s just say I wasn’t in the auditorium much longer…