The force is strong in Kerry Ellis, Louise Dearman, and Rachel Tucker. Three big voices in sparkly gowns patrol the forestage of the Theatre Royal \u2013 the back half of the stage is filled with their band and a dozen lighting stands. They talk of their individual journeys towards their current level of stardom, the songs they used to audition with, the first shows they performed in, when and where they met and what good friends they are now. They are modest in a confiding and gently gossipy way. But there is a degree of holding back \u2013 this is an audience that has come to a show called Gravity, and there are songs it wants to hear.<\/p>\n
The entire first half is a withholding. Songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sara Bareilles; a dreadful camp singalong version of Dolly Parton\u2019s Jolene with the violin player faking hoedown fiddle, and Rachel Tucker singing Cabaret in the style of Las Vegas rather than the back alleys of Berlin.<\/p>\n
The second half opens with the first song of the evening from the source. In sparkling scarlet gowns, the three singers weave their way through No Good Deed from Wicked. It is rapturously greeted by the packed theatre, and performed with more dynamism and charm than the songs of the first half, but the programme then reverts to a musical greatest hits. The three singers demonstrate that belting songs doesn\u2019t necessarily help to present the more nuanced and complex word-play of Stephen Sondheim, Rachel Tucker once again reaching a low in her unsubtle rendition of Rose\u2019s Turn from Gypsy. The band demonstrates credible jazzy chops in an instrumental version of My Favourite Things,\u00a0and then the stars come out for the grand finale.<\/p>\n
Queen\u2019s overblown showbiz anthem The Show Must Go On suits the mood of the audience and the performers perfectly. They look for a top, and then they go over it with joy and abandon. The guitar player gives us a passage of Brian May-style shredding, the voices challenge each other to go bigger, and the climax is eye-watering. This is what the people want.<\/p>\n
Queen is capped with For Good, the 11 o\u2019clock number from Wicked, the three stars passing the lyric carefully and poignantly to each other. The songs from other shows that went before are performed in a slightly off-hand manner, but this feels meant; the expressions of friendship sound genuine, and the audience is in raptures. And it builds and builds from a gentle ballad into their face-melting comfort zone of very loud before the dulcet, breathy ending, which may be a portent because here comes the one everybody has been waiting for.<\/p>\n
Singing Gravity apparently destroyed Idina Menzel\u2019s larynx, but Kerry Ellis, Louise Dearman, and Rachel Tucker give that danger no mind as they strive to lift the roof off the theatre, and bring the audience ecstatically to their feet. Everything is turned up to 11: music, emotion, enthusiasm. It is a fitting climax to a slightly unfocused show, a generous gift of a favourite song to a super-receptive audience, a showcase for three big voices, and who cares about subtle anyway?<\/p>\n
Reviewed on 31 August 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\tThe Reviews Hub Star Rating<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t60%<\/p>\n \t\t\tBlingy Breathaking Belters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The force is strong in Kerry Ellis, Louise Dearman, and Rachel Tucker. Three big voices in sparkly gowns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[80187,13254,748,18847,393,4884,135187,135188,257,135189,4575,135190,6080,135191,19739,35851,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-390287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-andrew-lloyd-webber","9":"tag-brian-may","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-dolly-parton","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-idina-mendel","15":"tag-kerry-ellis","16":"tag-london","17":"tag-louise-dearman","18":"tag-queen","19":"tag-rachel-tucker","20":"tag-review","21":"tag-sara-bareilles","22":"tag-stephen-sondheim","23":"tag-theatre-royal-drury-lane","24":"tag-uk","25":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115131305475483647","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}