Love, Laugh and Live

Published Friday 1 December 2006 at 13:00 by Scott Matthewman

This evening of songs on three themes started weakly with a thesaurus reading which, as with all the scripted attempts at humour throughout, never quite worked. Thankfully, the warmth and vivacity of the two stars and their songs compensated handsomely.

When selecting music to showcase particular actors’ vocal abilities, it is always going to be difficult to maintain the balance between demonstrating musical ability and keeping a consistent sense of musical style. Thankfully, Jonathan Eio and Lucy Thatcher succeeded.

Eio’s boyish charisma, highlighted by an opening number from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory that accentuated his physical similarity to the film’s Charlie Bucket, carried him through some good renditions of a variety of classics. In particular, his solos of Arthur’s Theme and New York State of Mind demonstrated that he has an enviable ability to captivate the audience.

On any other evening, he would have deserved much praise. Here, though, he was overshadowed by Lucy Thatcher, who consistently outperformed him all evening. Bringing a sense of characterisation to every song that Eio seemed unable to match, it is Thatcher’s performance that will remain in the memory.

The second act started disappointingly, with original compositions (including one of Eio’s own) that, while musically and vocally impressive, felt lacking in the lyrics. However, Thatcher’s incredibly romantic rendition of Ben Folds’ The Luckiest could not but melt hearts. By the final medley of duets, the rapport betwen Eio and Thatcher resulted in some genuine comedy between the pair in sharp contrast to their ponderous early efforts.