Review: Monday Night At The Apollo (June 14th)

Following the success of their first concert last month, Monday Night At The Apollo returned to the West End for a sequel performance - this time gathering another five West End stars to chat about their careers and perform a variety of songs.

This months offering featured Les Miserables co-stars Jamie Muscato and Shan Ako, Once and Doctor Who star Arthur Darvill, former Glinda from Wicked Sophie Evans and Waitress and Hairspray star Sandra Marvin. Sat together on stage throughout the whole show, the evening played host to unique duets and brilliant interactions from the five in a show that is becoming increasingly like theatres answer to The Graham Norton show.

Taking place live at the Apollo theatre while simultaneously being streamed live on Thespie, the evening was again compèred by Greg Barnett who seamlessly kept the show ticking away from performance to chat no matter how weird the conversations became. The unique selling point of this concert is the variety of musical styles. In this and last months concert, act 1 boasted a range of songs as diverse as Elton John, Bob Marley and Marvin Gaye while the second act stayed closer to musical theatre.

Highlights of the night included Shan Ako's uplifting 'One Love' which didn't fail to put a smile on everybodys face as well as a look in to her own original material with 'Lean On' and a visit to Les Miserables where she is currently playing Eponine for a phenomenal 'On My Own'. Her Les Mis co-star Jamie Muscato impressed with his incredible vocal range tackling 'Rocket man', 'Maria' from West Side Story and returning to Westerberg High but this time channelling one of the Heathers for a performance of 'Lifeboat'.

Sophie Evans revisited her time as Glinda to bring us a joyous rendition of 'Popular' from Wicked, Arthur Darvill took on John Lennon's 'Jealous Guy' and Sandra Marvin brought the house down, channeling her best Motormouth from the iconic and always emotional 'I Know Where I've Been' from Hairspray in what may have been the performance of the night.

The five performers also united for some unique duets including Arthur and Sophie teaming up for a fabulous 'Suddenly Seymour' from Little Shop of Horrors. Arthur also teamed up with Shan Ako for a performance of 'Lies' from Once while Jamie Muscato and Sandra Marvin closed act one with a brilliant 'You're All I Need To Get By'. The show came to a close with the three ladies performing 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody'.

With brilliant one-off performances and amazing chat in between, Monday Night at the Apollo continues to set itself apart from other concerts by giving us that intimacy and sense of spontaneity you don't always get in other shows. Five phenomenal performers singing a wide range of songs that resulted in an unexpected but consistently strong setlist meant this was every bit as fantastic as the first concert. Let's hope there's more Monday Night at the Apollo in the near future as this is what Monday nights were made for.

★★★★

Monday Night at the Apollo concert can be streamed until Thursday 17th June from https://thespie.com/digital/monday-night-at-the-apollo-14th-june-2021-thespie/2713 with a bundle available containing this months and last months show.