THE role of Rachel Marron, the superstar singer threatened by a stalker, is one that any actor/singer would give their eye teeth for. Involved in 12 song and dance numbers, and some delicious dramatic and romantic moments, Rachel can really take the show by the scruff of the neck and dominate scene after scene.
Like all great parts, however, it is a two-edged sword. Rachel must have the sort of charismatic personality, dramatic know-how and vocal talent of both original lead Diana Ross, seller of more than a hundred million records worldwide, and Whitney Houston, whose recording of the soundtrack for the 1992 film broke international records, both of them true superstars.
In the absence of Sidonie Smith, Mireia Mambo stepped fearlessly into those enormous shoes, and wisely made no attempt to mimic Whitney Houston in any shape or form. Praised for her vocals, Houston won little praise for her acting. With her bubbly personality and the sense of poignancy she brought into vocals sung with tremendous verve and gusto, Mireia created a warm and loveable Rachael. Here was a woman who, with few defensive weapons, would fight to the death to defend her beloved son Fletcher. There was a genuine sense of mother/son love between her and Fletcher (a role shared by Adam Bartlett, Phoenix Beharry, Mason Dyett and Ebrahim Joof, aged 12 or under, throughout the tour.)
The man who inadvertently caused the pain was the newly hired ex secret serviceman bodyguard Frank Farmer. Without the burden of any vocal comparisons to be made, Adam Garcia, apart from one deliberately poor attempt at karaoke, could and did comfortably slip into the languid, under-played style of Kevin Costner. The big dramatic climax when he finally confronts James-Lee Harris’ stalker was a bit of an ani-climax, and in the final scenes he and the others involved looked a little like a set of Premier League forwards at a corner trying to disentangle themselves in front of a gaping goal and prod the ball into an unguarded net. Stage adapter Alexander Dinelais must take most of the blame for this. It is certainly not the fault of Matt Milburn, John Macaulay, Johnathan Alden and Ryan Bennett, who made a fine job of creating the coterie of those surrounding Rachel, or the small and tremendously talented ensemble, who brought energy and purpose to several numbers.
Having fairly blown us out of out seats during the prologue, MD Charlie Ingles quickly reined the six-piece orchestra in to provide a sound to match the music and lyrics in I Have Nothing, Saving All My Love, One Moment in Time, Where do Broken Hearts Go, and Dolly Parton’s show-stopping I Will Always Love You, to which the audience responded with the sort of energy that had been coming from the stage all evening.
GRP