REVIEW - LIVE AT LOLA'S A MUSICAL CHAT SHOW - LOLA'S UNDERGROUND CASINO -

Live at Lola’s: A Musical Chat Show with Stars of the West End is a night of musical fun that no musical fan will want to miss. The show is a combination of musical theatre, interviews, audience questions, and a quiz.

The show starred Hadley Fraser, Christine Allado, Carly Mercedes Dyer and Isaac Hesketh. All performers gave a masterclass performance in singing, using a variety of musical songs that showcased their range and incredible talent.

Greg Barnett was a charismatic host and had good banter with both audience and performers. Barnett did a good job of keeping everything on schedule and kept the tone playful and fun.

When Barnett opened the show with The Greatest Showman I expected the songs that followed to be familiar crowd pleasers, however I was pleasantly surprised with the range of songs in this show. Hadley Fraser opened the show with ‘Moving too Fast’ from The Last Five Years and made some great choices with his riffs. It was touching to see how blown away the other West End performers were by Fraser’s performance.

Next Carly Mercedes Dyer stunned the audience with ‘Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now!’ Dyer has a powerful belt and sung the whole song beautifully. Later on she performed ‘Music and The Mirror’ from A Chorus Line, another song which showcased her incredible voice splendidly.

Isaac Hesketh was mesmerising throughout the whole evening and performed a beautiful rendition of ‘Part of Your World’. Hesketh showed their warm and funny personality throughout the show and clearly has infectiously fun energy.

Christine Allado sung ‘Can’t Help Loving Dat Man’ with a beautiful classical tone to her voice. Later, showcasing a different tone of her impressive vocals she sung ‘It Won’t Be Long Now’. Allado proves to be a master of singing technique!

I really enjoyed the chat show segment of the show and all of the anecdotes which the actors shared. The audience were able to ask their own questions too. The quiz was a bit randomly placed towards the end and didn’t add much to the show. It would have been better places as a warm up activity whilst the stage was set.

A special mention as well to pianist Chris Hatt who played beautiful arrangements of all the songs with such passion, he is incredibly talented and great at connecting with both the artists and the music.

The space itself was fantastic. The acoustics are great and really help to elevate the performance. It’s worth noting that you only get a table with VIP tickets and general admission is rowed seating towards the back. If you are a big fan it might be worth splashing out on the VIP tickets for more space and a better view.

Overall, I really enjoyed this concept of a musical theatre chat show. The stars were amazing as individuals but also worked well as a group. I’d love to see them work together again and look forward to seeing who Live at Lola’s hosts next!

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

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