Every time I visit the Dominion theatre, I get a warm and fuzzy feeling because it was the first proper theatre I ever visited, and I had a fantastic experience there. This time was no different. I took the nipper as it was a biblical story and being a good Catholic girl, she knew all about it. Like every good musical Prince started with a fanfare of sound and dance and looked promising. A quick peruse of the programme revealed just one ‘name’ I recognised if not a blast from the past – Ooh –er! Gary Wilmot was playing ‘Jethro’.
Unfortunately, the story of Moses, is a rather sad and bleak one for the most part. Slotting in merry song and dance betwixt the slaughter, famine and pestilence is a task indeed, but no worries – cos surely Dreamworks will inject a bit of happiness and joy? Did they? Nope. Not really.
Allado and Khadime’s rendition of ‘When You believe’ was spellbinding.
I really, really wanted to like this but honestly? ‘Grim’ is not what I’m looking for in a musical and that’s what it was. It’s hard to hold the cast at fault as they were enthusiastic and worked hard for their money. There was some complicated choreography that they pulled off amazingly well and also some stunning voices on display – notably Christine Allado who plays ‘Tzipporah’, Alexia Khadime who plays ‘Miriam’ and a little girl called Mia Lakha who plays ‘Hebrew Girl’. Allado and Khadime’s rendition of ‘When you believe’ was nowhere near Whitney and Mariah’s version but just as spellbinding.
Afridiziak’s top shout out goes to the cute leading man, Luke Brady who plays Moses. I know it sounds odd to say of a musical, but there was a hell of a lot of singing in this production and he appeared to do most of it. He’s a so-so singer and by the end looked ready to burst a blood vessel. His hair was almost Afro, and I just wanted to give him a hug. Decidedly underwhelmed, Nipper and I were rendered speechless- and not in a good way, at the sloping stage and pyrotechnics (oh yes, bun fire don’t you know) that were suddenly thrown in for good measure and were relieved when it was finally over. Oh, and Gary Wilmot? Blink and you miss him.
