Review: FROM THE HEART, Garrick Theatre
Photo credit: Eamonn B Shanahan
Don Black may not be a familiar name to everyone, but this super talented lyricist has forged a long and successful career as a songsmith to the stars. He has co-written five Bond themes and collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the double Tony award-winning Sunset Boulevard. Black has won an Oscar and has been nominated on four other occasions. Six Ivor Novello awards and a Golden Globe also fight for space on a crowded mantlepiece. Not bad for a kid from Hackney who started out as an office boy and dabbled as a comedian. Musicals bearing his name have appeared regularly in the West End and on Broadway. Now this special revue of his work hits the West End for a limited run at the Garrick Theatre.
We are transported to an off-Broadway cabaret club where the lights are low and a lone pianist backs a singer belting out songs of joy, pain and every emotion in between. Well, there’s also a cellist but you get the picture. A recorded narration, performed by Don Black, sets the scene for seventeen superbly crafted songs. The ridiculously talented cast features Caroline O’Connor, Frances Mayli McCann, Shona McGarty, Michael D. Xavier and Clive Rowe. All remain on stage throughout and quietly perch at nearby tables while the featured vocalist sings.
The songs are typically bright, perceptive and witty - all classic hallmarks of a Don Black creation. They quickly hit the spot with a deafening ring of truth. The frustration of growing older and staying healthy (‘Doctors’), the challenge of sobriety (‘Fizzy or Still’), the pain of lost love (‘I’d Go To Bed Early’) and indeed the love that went to waste (‘Everything But The Blame’). But they are also tempered with songs of hope (‘I’ve Got a Hundred Things to Do Before I Die’), and an overriding sense of positivity in the title song.
An impressive array of composers provide the music for these songs and include Mike Batt, Gary Barlow and David Arnold. Every performance promises a special guest. On this night, it was Michael Ball who delivered a rousing version of ‘Love Changes Everything’ from Aspects of Love, another musical Black co-wrote with Andrew Lloyd Webber.
It was easy to recognise music of fine quality and distinction as the entire house rose to its feet. When Don Black took the stage, we were in the presence of a modest genius who has proven time and again how important words are in our lives. But the show only runs for one hour and twenty minutes and we couldn’t help wanting more. The cabaret section completed in an hour and was followed by a 20 minute finale of songs from an impressive canon of work. However, this gave the show a slightly uneven feel.
A medley of Bond tunes felt rushed in a show with no interval. It was begging for two halves with the cabaret section in Act One and Black’s greatest hits in a rounded Act Two. That minor quibble aside, it is a superlative evening of entertainment. Don Black said that it had taken thirty years for this project to reach fruition. It gives us all hope that an 88-year-old can still be creative and have goals in life. It just proves you’re never too old to have a dream.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Brian Penn
From the Heart plays at the Garrick Theatre until 18 October, with tickets available here.
