Stars of the West End present, an Evening of Abba
Review by David Bithell for 6 Towns Radio
Photo credits - David Bithell
Musical Director - Richard Weeden
Performing - Norman Bowman, Jenna Lee James and Natalie Hope
Norman Bowman
Norman starred in Mamma Mia! at The Prince of Wales Theatre, London playing the role of Sam Carmichael.
Born in Arbroath, Scotland, Norman was awarded a scholarship to train in Musical Theatre at The London Academy of Performing Arts.
A regular performer in the West End and across the UK, his theatre credits include: Pat Denning in 42nd Street, Directed by Mark Bramble
(Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), Eugene's Dad in Eugenius! - Directed by Ian Talbot and Michael Jibson (London Palladium), Billy Bigelow in Carousel - Directed by Angus Jackson (Chichester Festival Theatre), Danny Zuko in Grease (UK No.1 Tour)Marius in Les Miserables (West End and UK Tour)
Jenna Lee James
Jenna has enjoyed a fabulous theatre career. In addition to 'Mamma Mia!', she has performed in a variety of leading roles, including Mary in Rod Stewart’s, Tonight's the Night (UK Tour), Original cast of We Will Rock You, in which she played two leading roles, Meatloaf and Scaramouche (Dominion Theatre).
She became the only person in the world to have played all three female leading roles in We Will Rock You when she toured as Killer Queen in the 10th Anniversary World Arena tour.
Natalie Hope
Natalie is an experienced West End performer with a fabulous list of credits under her belt, including Alternate Eva Peron - Evita, Natalie - Commitments and Adelaide - Guys and Dolls.
She also regularly performs as a concert vocalist. She was the lead female vocalist in the sell-out UK tour of 'An Evening of Queen' and recently supported classical crossover artists Thomas Spencer Wortley
Right from the onset, the male vocalist told the crowd, "before we continue we must stress we are not an ABBA tribute, we don't claim to be, we are just 3 people singing the ABBA greats, so if you were expecting to see a Bjorn lookalike and soundalike we are sorry".
The 3 performers have all appeared in Mamma Mia the musical on the west end so we knew what we were getting.
On with the show and what a show it was from the opening number, Summer night city, the crowd at Vale Park were up dancing and singing along to all the classics including Mamma Mia, Super Trooper, Knowing me knowing you, Fernando, SOS and much much more. The stars of the west end had the audience in the palm of their hands.
With a high energy, top notch vocalists it was a very enjoyable show which was topped off with great weather making it a night to remember.
50 years on from the release of Waterloo, it was only right that the final song of the night was this absolute classic. which in 1974 was performed by ABBA and won The Eurovision Song Contest, ironically this event was on the very same night as the contest this year which was being held in Sweden, (Malmo in fact), so it was written in the stars.
We must thank Port Vale Football Club for the hospitality and the very warm welcome we received from the moment we arrived to leaving the stadium at the end of this great gig.
So stars of the West End, an Evening of ABBA, thank you for the music you really are Super Troopers!!!
If you get chance to watch this show, you won't be disappointed.
The next dates are as follows:
Saturday 18th May 2024 at Silverlake Stadium, home of Eastleigh FC.
Friday 31st May 2024 at The Hawthornes, home of West Bromwich Albion.
To purchase tickets go to https://www.aneveningofabba.com/dates-tickets
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