A long term fan, but this will be the last time I venture beyond the barricade. Welcome back to another review, this time we are discussing the musical concert Beyond the Barricade. Be prepared, this is in no way intended to be harsh or offensive, but after hours of rewording things, I need to just get the words out there. I want to also make it clear that if I comment about it not being my first time, this does not mean that someone would dislike it on their first visit. I will try to keep repeat visits to a minimum but it is worth noting.
About the show!
Beyond the Barricade is a musical theatre concert founded by Andy Reiss & David Fawcett, two ex stars of Les Miserables. They have performed under this name for 22 years, performing a mix of musical theatre numbers. I have seen this group 3 times, once in each year, and I loved the first time, liked the second and have had a bit of a realisation the third time.
The songs performed in the show came from shows such as Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera as well as “the brand new musicals” Come from Away and Hamilton. It is difficult to say which songs were good and which ones didn’t really hit home for me other than Circle of Life was a bit of a let down.
Poppy and Andy
It may be easier to say that Poppy and Andy were full of energy and really gave the audience a show. Even just the little movements Poppy did during the Chicago number, and the acting from Andy in the Hamilton section, were enough to keep us going. Poppy’s various solos were amazing, her voice is so unique with a different (in a good way) sounding vibrato.
Andy seemed to love every minute on stage and brought bags of energy to the stage. With some brilliant vocal solos as well as a great presence in the group numbers!
David and Katie
David Fawcett was brilliant in the chorus elements or when he really had to belt, but the sustaining was clearly an issue for him as notes were cut short and the band were playing for 10 seconds at a time with no vocals. Katie Leeming had a few solos. With the aim to be completely honest and transparent, I thought she seemed unhappy to be on stage. With David introducing her with accolades such as appearing in front of royalty, I was prepared to be blown away. There was very little emotion, effort or passion brought to the stage. Circle of Life was sung at speaking volume. Tell me it’s not true that it was sung with an in and out scouse accent. Yet in the group numbers, her voice blended gorgeously into the music and was lovely to hear.
Why so harsh?
I don’t raise this to name and shame anyone or make it a competition. This is all just my opinion and I am sure there are people in the audience who loved the performance. But when their own website says “the decision was made to cast only from previous Les Miserables cast members so that the public were under no illusion as to the quality of the performers”, it opens itself to comments on quality and comparison.
So when I think back to my visit to the Hippodrome to see Strictly Musicals 3, in which they sang some of the same songs (and provided us with so many more too) I have to say, the Operatic society performance was overall better than the Beyond the Barricade performance. With them raising the question of quality, I have to say that the quality of the operatic society was also better. Both in terms of music, variety and vocals, I prefered the Strictly Musicals concert. The tickets were roughly the same price. However at Beyond the Barricade I only had a view of half of the stage. For strictly musicals I sat in the front row at the end which allowed a full stage view.
I found it a bit weird that, in Beyond the Barricade, they had such long pauses of instrumental (mostly played on a keyboard) with them turning their back to the audience and then turning back around. It just all felt a bit weird.
The Bows!
The rest of the audience was brought to their feet at the bows, but I just didn’t see it. I’m sure I was the youngest audience member there, so maybe that had something to do with it. I just think the level of professionalism, effort and passion didn’t match their claims on their website. Plus as a stand alone piece of entertainment, this isn’t really something I could sit through again, which is a bit of an issue for me.
In Summary:
The songs that were good, were good. Poppy and Andy were bringing a lot of energy to the stage and really kept the piece moving but there was a bit of a general lack of care or effort. The show was really clunky and some of the songs just didn’t seem to fit. But I came away feeling like I had been to the theatre, heard some music and got what I paid for, at £15 for the restricted view ticket.
The rating!
I would give this show three out of five stars. This show is good for those new audiences or if you just fancy getting into a theatre and seeing some form of entertainment. As a recurring visitor, I think I have been to my last performance. But this is NOT a bad show if you want to pass the time.
Have your say!
Have you seen Beyond the Barricade? What did you think? Is this one you can watch over and over again, or is once enough? Let me know in the comments and let’s get a discussion going.
As always, please be respectful of each other’s opinions and be kind to each other. I completely respect and value everyone that worked on this Show. We need to remember that these are people with feelings. Let’s treat them with respect. Bullying will not be tolerated and harmful language will be removed.
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Image has been taken from the Beyond the Barricade website.