A review of the show 'The Sounds of Burt Bacharach'

[pljms]

This tribute to Bacharach has been touring around southern England for a few weeks now and I managed to catch it in Harlow last week and in Edmonton, north London, last night. It’s performed by four vocalists (3 young women and a not so young man, Chris Dean from the Syd Lawrence Orchestra, who devised the show) who all know how to put a song over and who take it in turn to sing solo and alternatively sing background, and a 7-piece band (Trumpet, trombone, piano, digital keyboard, guitar, bass and drums) made up of musicians who apparently regularly play with big bands and in West End pit orchestras. This is purely a song-based show with no set and without a scenario linking the songs. Announcements between the numbers are kept short and to the point ("That was a hit in 1963 for Jack Jones and this was a hit in 1964 for Dusty Springfield") and apart from the fact that the vocalists are dressed in mainly 60s fashions and a few umbrellas were twirled during 'Raindrops' the only stage 'business' that took place was for 'Three Wheels on my Wagon', in which the four singers went into Wild West mode, donning cowboy hats and affecting outrageous Southern accents while the band donned head-bands and feathers. This got a big response from the audience last night, so much so that Chris Dean was moved to remark that, "It's always the rubbish that goes down the best!". That was one of several surprise song choices that were on the whole very welcome, although I personally could have done without the weak ‘Forever my Love’. So that the band can flex its muscles and the vocalists have plenty of time for costume changes, the show makes good use of instrumentals with ‘South American Getaway’ sounding terrific in a purely small group arrangement without voices.

Of course, the most important aspect in a show like this for all Bacharach fanatics like myself is that the arrangements are faithful at least in spirit to Bacharach’s originals and that the all important chord sequences and time signatures are strictly adhered to, and this was definitely the case for about 95% of the time. However, in a long show lasting a shade over two hours and containing over 30 songs there were bound to be a few negatives and I suppose it was just about pardonable that there were a few stumbles in the lyric remembering department, but less forgivable were the instances of misinformation given by the singers about several of the numbers. For example, ‘Pacific Coast Highway’ we were told was from ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’; ‘One less Bell’ was a hit for Cheryl Crowe; ‘Don’t Make me Over’ was a hit for both Petula Clark and Neil Diamond and that the New Christy Minstrels’ recording of ‘Three Wheels on my Wagon’ was a No.1 in the UK for several weeks, when in actual fact it failed to chart at all. The running order was a bit quirky here and there too (see below), never more so when a very affecting rendition of ‘The Windows of the World’ was followed immediately and jarringly by ‘Raindrops’ keep fallin’ on my Head’. Those quibbles aside, this is a highly enjoyable show, not only for Bacharach fans but music lovers generally, put on and performed by people who obviously love and care about the man’s music and, most importantly, manage to do it justice.

Based purely on my less than reliable memory, the running order went something like this:

Magic Moments
I say a little Prayer
Are you there (with another girl)
Making Love
Wives and Lovers (instrumental)
I just don’t know what to do with myself
Theme from ‘The Blob’
Do you know the way to San Jose
The Windows of the World
Raindrops keep fallin’ on my Head
Casino Royale
You’ll never get to heaven/ Don’t go Breaking my Heart
A House is not a Home
South American Getaway
Arthur’s Theme
One less Bell to Answer
What’s new Pussycat

Interval

Promises, Promises (instrumental)
Make it Easy on Yourself
I’ll Never Fall in Love Again
Walk on By
Don’t Make Me Over
Three Wheels on my Wagon
What the World Needs Now is Love
(There’s) Always something there to remind me
Anyone who had a Heart
Twenty-four hours from Tulsa
Reach out for me
The Story of my Life
Close to You
Pacific Coast Highway
Forever my Love
The Look of Love
This Guy’s in Love with You
Alfie
That’s what Friends are for
(Curtain) The World is a Circle (instrumental)

Here's the link to the show's website:

http://www.jazzmouse.co.uk/news51.html

[Sara D]

Thanks for the marvellous, appetite whetting review, pljms. I'm seeing the show at the stables, Wavendon next week.

[deborah]

Many thanks re info on this show, I have booked for the show in Hornchurch, Queens Theatre , 22nd June, cant wait.

[Rio]

There's no way I can attend, but I have to thank you for this thorough review through the eyes, I mean, the ears, of a true Bacharach afficionado.

If there was a way of sending them a note about the mistakes (I mean, not just about the "missses", but the "hits" as well)... It's such a simple thing to correct relative to all the effort needed to get 95% right on the really difficult part...

[pljms]

Sara, Deborah and Rio, thanks for the kind comments.

As you can see from the running order not a lot of the hits are excluded from the show, but there are a few notable absentees and when at the end a gentleman behind me announced to his partner with smug confidence that there weren't any other big songs left to do I took great satisfaction in reminding him of several numbers that hadn't been included and that had all at one time been hits in the UK, namely 'Trains and Boats and Planes', 'Wishin' and Hopin', 'Message to Martha', 'Baby it's you', 'Tower of Strength', 'Please Stay' and 'On My Own'. Okay, I doubt very much if I named all of the above but I did succeed in shutting him up!

[Sara D]

If it wasn't for Deborah mentioning she was going to the Hornchurch show on the 22nd of June, rather than in May, I would have wasted a journey to the Stables in Wavendon tomorrow as I wasn't planning to book in advance. It's too bad that the show's site still hasn't corrected the error and I've now booked for the Stables on June 25th.

As for the errors in lyrics and song information, I hope Chris Dean and co take advantage of their month off from the show to iron out the faults. I'm a great believer in the old maxim that if a jobs worth doing it's worth doing well.

[Sara D]

I saw the show in Hornchurch last night and with a few misgivings really enjoyed it. Well, it's difficult not to enjoy a show that features somewhere in the region of 35 Bacharach numbers that cover a pretty broad spectrum of his output, and as a woman behind me said, "He's a jack of all trades, isn't he?". Allowing for the odd stumble in the lyrics and the occasional over-strident moment, the singers were all good enough to do justice to the material and the band are all obviously tip-top musicians, although the trumpet/flugal-horn player was obviously having a bit of an off night. As pljms said, the show just didn't concentrate on the hits and there were a few very welcome and imaginative inclusions, not least the instrumentals. However, I could have happily done without 'Making Love' and 'Forever my Love', which although pretty just sounded tame next to the classic songs. There were more than a few pensioners in the audience and they would have been pleased to be reminded of Perry Como (Magic moments) and Michael Holliday (The Story of my Life), the two UK No.1 records that still retain a certain nostalgic charm, but heard as songs in the context of a show like this they just sounded naff, to use an old English expression. The inclusion of 'Three wheels on my Wagon', supposedly for a bit of comic relief, might have been a good idea if it had been better executed. A word of praise for the pianist/MD for, by and large, not altering Bacharach's chord changes and for the arrangements which were mostly very faithful to the originals and when not at least were tasteful and sympathetically drawn. It was good to see a good crowd in too on what was a very warm night.

[deborah]

We also enjoyed the show on Tuesday and thought the female singers did really well apart from a couple of songs which I felt were sung/ played too slowly. It was great to hear so many songs in one night.

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[gillanddon]

Sorry .. the show sounds dreadful and not anywhere near the true spirit or even close to the class of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.