"White Christmas - A West End Gala" - Nottingham Thheatre Royal

Review By Hayley Baron

House Lights Down And The Music Started for Stephen Sondheim's "Company". All Of Sudden four actors holding microphones rushed out on to the stage, then the sound of the jazzy song sung by the four top west-end actors stunned you in enjoyment.

When the first song had finished two of the actors left the stage leaving Sally Ann and Jill left on stage to sing "I still believe" from Miss Saigon. This song was lovely to watch, both of their voices were lovely and well deserved their round of applause.

Martin Yates then welcomed the audience to the show and gave Scott a wonderful introduction, if I can remember correctly it was something like "A fantastic performer, and The best Phantom he has ever seen" I can't help saying even though I haven't seen Scott in Phantom that Martin Yates is very true.

Scott then came onto the stage to sing a favourite of mine "Starlight Express" I couldn't help noticing his rather jazzy shirt whilst I was totally transfixed to his talent. He brought so much power into the song that made it so memorable. Well all good things come to an end and a very lovely end it was too, when he whispered "Starlight Express" into the microphone it made me go all tingly. Well I about clapped my hands away. But I didn't despair because another great voice was on the stage next YES "Jill Washington" an Ex-Christine. She sang, "I could have danced all night" from My Fair Lady. How proud she must feel to have a voice like that, truly natural gifts like that don't come around that often (I wish they did, then maybe I would of had a bigger chance of inheriting some gene like that).

The show progressed and I was getting more excited because the song I've been yearning to hear was coming up soon. After Jill came off the stage Andrew started singing another favourite of mine "Can you feel The love tonight" from The Lion King, I loved the emotion of Andrew whilst singing this, because that's what makes this song good, the emotion of the singer ... if they was no emotion the song would be .... Well a load of lyrics, music and singer with no emotion. But Andrew showed emotion so it was a fantastic song, which will be held in my heart for a long time.

Sally Ann was up with a solo from Oliver "As long as he needs me"... OK I have to admit I was slipping in out of daydreams at this point because guess who was coming on next to sing guess what. But I did pay some attention and she sang the song very lovely, lot's of emotion (I'll probably use the word emotion a lot) and it was nice and smooth, it is nice song, but it doesn't come into my rankings as the best. But however she did sing it perfectly. Well done!

OK OK OK here it comes the time I was in absolute heaven YES!! SCOTTY DAVIES SINGING THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA WITH JILL WASHINGTON!!!!! HAHAHA.

Ok ok ok I'm calm! Anyway ... as soon as Jill started singing I knew what all those good reviews really meant, she is a lovely Christine Daae!! All notes were perfect!! Just as soon as Jill sang "Inside my mind" Scott raised his mic, I held the arm of seat ready just in case I fainted. As soon as Scott sang "Sing once again with me" I knew then I was completely gaa-gaa over Scott's voice. I now knew what it was like to be in love with an actor’s voice, everyone else seemed to be in love with some actors voice and I felt left out ... but now I don't. Was I finished with the emotion NO, because he was acting TOO, I was like..... OH MY GOD.... THE HAND GESTURES!! HE WAS DOING THEM!! And yet I still wasn't finished with emotion..."In all your fantasies" brought a happy tear to my eye.

I was finally here ... I'm finally seeing the man that gave me the final push to go and get into acting. The end of the song was great Jill's voice once again fantastic. I almost keeled over when Scott shouted "Sing for me!!!" At the end because it was so wonderful!! But also when that happened I knew "The Phantom Of The Opera" was over, but did I despair? NO, because "All I Ask Of You" was up next, sang by Andrew and Jill, apart from Wandering Child this song is the song that makes me go all weepy and it's my mum's favourite so this was lovely to watch. Again Andrew and Jill were acting, and were doing it fabulous, they're voices were just perfect for the scene on top of the Opera House..... Although there wasn't any scenery apart from an Orchestra, I could still imagine the stars of the night sky. After "All I ask of you" was finished I was jumping up and down again (well I wasn't because that wouldn't be very polite ... but you know what I mean), Scott was up again singing "The music of the night", he walked on stage, grabbed his mic stand and waited for his intro. The intro took place and he started singing. Yep my jaw dropped again. On "close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar", Scott was pointing and looking in my direction ... I quickly looked at mum and she smiled, I thought "oh dear, oh dear. Has Scott by chance seen me and singing to me" but then I quickly hit a reality check and thought, "noooo, he doesn't know what I look like and with the follow spot light shinning on him I don't think he could see me at row U" so I just carried on my ride through heaven. And yet again SCOTT WAS DOING THE BEST HAND MOVEMENTS!!! (I don't have some strange fetish for Scott's hands... It's just they're nice). Well he hit those lyrics "Help me make the music of the night"... but of course I wasn't upset by the fact Scott had finished Music Of The Night. Next up was the last song for Act1 "The People's Song" from Les Miserables. This makes me go all oookly (Don't even ask me to explain that). I sat there and marvelled at the splendour of the fact that Scott is perfect for Les Miz. Interval came and the way they were taking there bows ... I thought it was the end of the whole show. I guess I was inexperienced with concerts.

So the interval, I went into the foyer and had a glass of coke from the bar which was freezing my hand off, modern theatre's with air conditioning, WHAT EVER NEXT! Parents and I finished our drinks and headed back to are seats, we got there just in time for the next act.

Act 2: Act 2 began with a "Gershwin Medley", I looked at my mum and quietly said "Who's Gershwin?"... she said nothing (I obviously should of known). Well as it got into the swing of things I did recognise a song or two. I can't really give a good review about this bit because I don't know it but, I'll give it a try. They all sang it great! .. There! Hehehe (ok let me off here!, it's late at night!).

Ah! This next song, I liked.... yet again I didn't know it, so don't expect a good review....for some reason I didn't know a lot from Act2, I must get learning!. Anyway back to the song, it was "A couple of swells", the song was funny, Jill and Scott were great throughout this song and If I remember quite correctly there was a little bit of planned comedy just before this song started. Scott went on the stage but with no Jill Washington, so Scott was turning his head looking for Jill and he asked Martin Yates and she came up behind him *laughs* ... I suppose you had to be there to laugh! .. Trust me it was funny!.  It's a real shame I cant say much for this song because it was a real treat to watch!

Next up Andrew, he was singing "Anthem" from Chess,. And yep you guessed it, Hayley once again doesn't know a lot about Chess, but I do know one song...pity it wasn’t this one.

Andrew did sing it very well though lot's of the good stuff I call "Power" and he stood there on the stage like soldier which was honestly very effective, I liked it a lot.

The next bit I loved! All four were back on stage to do a Mamma Mia Medley! Yes songs from ABBA, I can't say I dislike all of the songs, because some of them are quite ... Cool ... They all sang really funky and it just made me want to get up on stage and sing with them, I had to stop myself from running on stage to sing with Scott when he was doing "The winner takes it all" I honestly do like that song, it's great! (Midi Playing Now)

The last solo of the night was "Maybe this time" from the film Cabaret, sung by Sally Ann. She sung it very nice! Cabaret is a great show, a bit naughty though but great!. This particular song is a love song and she sang it very loving indeed. The final medley of the evening arrived, it was medley of Christmas songs from shows!, good Christmas favourites were in there such as "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" and "Chestnuts roasting" so this was a lovely festive medley to see the evening off.

BUT! There was a finale yip yip! The soloists came back out onto the stage after taking their bows and sung "ONE DAY MORE"!!! From Les Miz. And guess who was singing ValJean's part.... Yes! Non other than Scotty Davies. And I'm telling you he is the perfect ValJean!.

Above: Scott Davies and Hayley Baron

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