Your Song

Your Song
The Little Red Company. Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 30 September to 1 October 2022

Your Song is a moving and breathtaking reminder of the power of music as a soundtrack to our lives. The award-winning show was put together by Adam Brunes and Naomi Price, creators at Brisbane’s busy and versatile The Little Red Company. Naomi also directs. In this case it is a dream job for the singer, putting together showcase pieces for her four star performers: Andy Cook, Marcus Corowa, Luke Kennedy and Irena Lysiuk, backed by a brilliant band, with Michael Manikus taking on the iconic-sounding keys, Mik Easterman adding rock energy on drums, with rhythm section ally OJ Newcomb on bass and Stephen Ward on essential electric guitar.

The concept is simple: each performer takes on multiple roles as ordinary people – just like you and me – who have had pivotal milestones in their lives influenced by the songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. It is a marvel when you think that every family will have someone who loves an Elton tune – from kids who’ve grown up with The Lion King soundtrack, teenagers who have been introduced to the songs through the film Rocketman, or who danced to ‘Crocodile Rock’ at the school disco, to favourite aunties who love to rock out to ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call it the Blues’. There is such a wealth of material to choose from, shaped into an entertaining and moving 90-minute show that features real-life memories and segues from wedding proposals to ‘Tiny Dancer’, gay pride moments to the tune of ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’, heart-wrenching break-ups to ‘Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word’ and a range of people who remember where they were when we lost a princess and ‘Candle in the Wind’ was the musical response that chimed for everyone. It was an emotional rollercoaster for me because I have distinct memories for just about every song on the playlist.

The pieces are brought to life by a quartet of star singers, each with a fabulous vocal range that Elton himself would kill for. They shone in every one of Elton’s wide-ranging genres of blues, rock, pop, defiant anthems, sweet ballads and rock opera. This show features some of our best musical theatre and opera entertainers: Andy Cook’s stage experience extends from Oklahoma! to Moulin Rouge: The Musical!; Marcus Corowa is a singer-songwriter who has performed for Opera Queensland and recently appeared in The Sunshine Club with co-star Irena Lysiuk; Irena is a regular Little Red Company performer and also appears as a feature artist for Opera Queensland – she also rollerskates as you’ll find out in this show; and of course Luke Kennedy is a Little Red regular, with recent gigs including the sensational Skyfall. He was also Music Supervisor for this show, and he performs pop and jazz for The TEN Tenors and his Swing on This group. What a great opportunity to see this wealth of talent on the same stage. Adding the requisite glitz and glam are Sound Designer Jamie Taylor, Lighting Designer Jason Glenwright (who won the Matilda Award for his work on this show’s premiere run in 2021), Costume Design by Laura Churchill, and fabulous balloons and glitter bombs by Kady Capewell.

 

Your Song began as a smaller cabaret show at Brisbane’s Judith Wright Centre where it won the Matilda Award for Best Musical or Cabaret in 2022. The show has filled out the Concert Hall well. I would love to see it in a touring format for wider regional and city audiences. It would go down a treat, and I would definitely queue to see this show again! Find out about The Little Red Company’s upcoming Christmas Actually and others on their website: www.thelittleredcompany.com/

Beth Keehn

Images: Stephanie Do Rozario

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