On Tuesday 5 November 2024, we enjoyed an evening filled with musical show tunes as Let’s Face the Music returned to the Royal Albert Hall for a night of musical theatre classics. The orchestra was joined by some of the West End's leading voices—Kerry Ellis, Kelly Mathieson, Jamie Muscato, and Jon Robyns—with conductor Richard Balcombe, and the evening was presented by Bonnie Langford, accompanied by BSL signer Angie Newman.
The concert opened with the orchestra overture from Gypsy, followed by Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ from the groundbreaking 1954 musical Oklahoma!, performed by Jamie Muscato. Kelly Mathieson then performed the title track from The Sound of Music.
Jon Robyns performed Singin’ in the Rain, followed by Kerry Ellis with Anything Goes—both from musicals of the same name.
From Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner’s My Fair Lady, we heard On the Street Where You Live and I Could Have Danced All Night, sung by Jon Robyns and Kelly Mathieson. The film earned 8 wins at the Academy Awards in 1965, including Best Picture.
The first half came to a show-stopping close as the cast joined together to sing There’s No Business Like Show Business from Annie Get Your Gun.
To start the second act, we heard the overture from South Pacific, followed by the entire cast returning to the stage to perform Let’s Face the Music from Top Hat.
After songs from The Wizard of Oz (with former Wicked star Kerry Ellis) and Guys and Dolls, there was an orchestral tribute to the first lady of musical cinema, Judy Garland, and the king of crooning Frank Sinatra, arranged by our conductor for the evening, Richard Balcombe. It featured excerpts from songs such as New York, New York and Meet Me in St Louis.
Bonnie Langford took the stage to perform I Get a Kick Out of You from Anything Goes, ending with a high kick and splits!
After the songs The Lady Is a Tramp and Don’t Rain on My Parade, the full cast joined together once more to perform a medley from Hello, Dolly! and Carousel’s You’ll Never Walk Alone to end the concert.
Thank you to all who came to this concert. You can explore more of our concerts coming up at the Royal Albert Hall in the 2024–25 Season by following the button below.