That’s Entertainment! (Liverpool Empire)
Friday night at the theatre is a perfect night out for me
but unfortunately for so many others it’s not.
A half filled audience (and I’m being generous with that) clapped and
sang along to a very good toe tapping night.
The show began with a tap dancing number (a personal
favourite of mine) that had energy and enthusiasm. Three song and dances down and we were introduced
the main ‘attraction’ of the night, The Overtones. I had not heard or seen them before so I was interesting
to see what they would bring to the show.
The answer – not much! Five male singers trying to be as slick and as tuneful
as some previous well known male groups from that era but unfortunately fell
flat. Luckily for me, they only did
three songs.
Back to what I considered the main attraction. Eight wonderful dances weaving their way
around the stage demonstrating flair, grace and energy accompanied the main
quartet, a foursome of two men and two ladies.
Both the men and ladies had strong stage personas and had talent oozing
out of the bodies. My joy was soon
stopped with the introduction of the Overtones again!
Now, I may be doing them an injustice and they might have
had sound problems but if they were on the poster to sell tickets, I think the
fact the theatre was less than half full spoke volumes. They weren’t all bad, of course. One or two held their own and all
demonstrated great moves in between the beats of the songs.
A return to the stage by the dancers and we were back on
track. I particularly loved the tribute
to ‘Singing in the Rain’ with the fantastic dance routine to ‘Good Morning’. A
wonderful rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ finished the first half and I
was ready to tuck into my bag of nearly confiscated sweets.
Second half was very much the same. Great singing and dance routines interrupted by
‘The Overtones’. All in all a show that
was very good but cold have been better if they had stayed with the original
format of song and dances.
