The West End Musical Drive In‘s fourth instalment sees cast members from Aladdin getting us to honk our horns
“Miss rona hasn’t stopped us from gathering here, in a car park, to celebrate musical theatre”
The latest digital visit to the West End Musical Drive In sees us catch a concert featuring three performers connected through their performances in productions of Aladdin. Matt Croke, Trevor Dion Nicholas and Hiba Elchikhe gather here for one of the more fun concerts in this series, with duets aplenty but a slight issue with the format does begin to arise.
Within the first 20 minutes, we’ve already heard two songs that have been performed in previous shows in this series (see reviews of episode 1, episode 2 and episode 3). It’s not the end of the world by any means, and arguably this version of ‘As Long As You’re Mine’ is a stonker, but it is perhaps something to be considered by the creators as these gratefully-received online options are explored.
But from Elchikhe scorching through Hamilton’s ‘Burn’ to Croke’s effortless soaring through the likes of ‘Waving Through A Window’ and ‘Come What May’ and Nicholas nailing The Lion King’s ‘Be Prepared’, there’s musical theatre treats aplenty here. For me though, the highlight was Nicholas’ powerful rendition of ‘Wheels of a Dream’ from Ragtime, a true standout moment.
The duets were particularly fun too. Croke and Nicholas reprising ‘Somebody’s Got Your Back‘, Croke with Elchikhe on a dreamy ‘A Whole New World’, and Nicholas bringing out Karl Queensborough to reunite for ‘One Last Time’. And a final word for the indefatiguable Shanay Holmes who comperes with endless energy and sprinkles in some top performances too, a high-octane take on ‘I’m Every Woman’ was a great choice to keep the energy pumping.
