MUSICALS BY CANDLELIGHT - REVIEW

Musicals by Candlelight is an experience guaranteed to give you goosebumps and leave you with a smile. From the choice of show tunes to the venue, it is a well-planned and fantastically curated endeavour, one I was very happy to embark on it.

Walking into the iconic Actors’ Church (St. Paul’s) in Covent Garden, a warm glimmer welcomes you. Hundreds of (artificial) candles are set up and among them, four chairs are awaiting the wonderful women of Icon Strings, our quartet for the night. If you have never seen a Candlelight production, this is your sign to do so!

The ensemble perform a well-curated selection of fast-paced hits and ballads which make your heart cry (Moulin Rouge pun intended). Kicking off with one of my all-time favourites, ‘El Tango de Roxanne’, the tone of the evening is aptly set. It is particularly enjoyable to see how much fun the four women have with their performances, especially when they were engaging in the playful banter that is iconic of West Side Story’s ‘America’. As a fan of classical music in general, I appreciated how Icon Strings adapted the arrangements. Although most of the songs need no introduction, at least not with the present audience, the insights and theatre trivia they provide in between every other song is an interesting twist. Two things which stuck with me were that Andrew Lloyd Webber found The Phantom of the Opera whilst rifling through old books,(side note: it is a fantastic read and I absolutely recommend it) and that Mary Poppins’ ‘Feed the Birds’ may have been Walt Disney’s favourite song as it is referring to giving back to charity – what a wonderful thought! Oh, and that the quartet chose Hamilton’s ‘Helpless’ for their production as it was the only song that could be adapted for their instruments without the Viola rapping; A shame actually, as both her and I (and probably the majority of the audience) would have wanted to see that.

Without giving away too much more of the set list, let me finish by saying that Icon String’s arrangement of ‘Pretty Woman’ gave me Bridgerton vibes, and if you are anticipating season three as much as I do, you might understand why I feel this could absolutely be one of the theme songs for our next couple.

An hour is definitely not enough, and I could have sat there for hours. The world-class musicians, who are internationally successful and can be heard on iconic soundtracks such as Downton Abbey and The Matrix are stealing the spotlight in their own show. I wanted to close my eyes but also not miss any moment in the fantastic atmosphere of the Actors’ Church. You can catch Musicals by Candlelight until the 10th of June, and it is worth a visit.

{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}

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