The Platinum Jubilee

Here in the UK, we celebrated the Queens Platinum Jubilee, to commemorate her being on the throne for an amazing 70 years. One of the ways we celebrated was through the joy of music at the Platinum Party At The Palace. This featured a plethora of different musical artists from many genres and decades. This party truly had something for everyone to enjoy. One of the sections was focused on four amazing musical theatre performances. 

Andrew Lloyd Webber came onto the stage and told the millions of people watching how the Queen's reign had outlived any musical ever. He announced which shows we would have the pleasure of seeing snippets of and we found out it would be Hamilton, Six, The Lion King, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, and The Phantom Of The Opera  Andrew Lloyd Webber then introduced Musical Theatre royalty Lin-Manuel Miranda to the stage and we saw him sitting at this piano. 

The two then sat and sang a song, in which Andrew Lloyd Webber congratulated the American on his success in the musical theatre world. Lin-Manuel joked about the fact that we were fortunate to be enjoying a 4 day bank holiday. The pair then introduced the first act which was the cast of Hamilton. 

They performed the song “Wait For It” with Simon-Anthony Rhoden in the role of Aaron Burr. the performance was extremely powerful and the vocals were simply breathtaking. One of the things that made this performance so incredible was the simplicity of the choreography. It really allowed Rhoden to have all eyes on him as he performed the motional number, which shows a turning point for the character in the show. 

Hamilton then transitioned to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic “The Phantom of the Opera” singing the titular song. The song was performed by Killian Donnelly in the role of the Phantom and Lucy St Louis, who recently became the first black actress to have ever played Christiane Daae. St Louis’s vocals were absolutely astonishing and almost tear-jerkingly beautiful. Everyone watched in awe as the pair performed the song.

After this, the tone of the stage then changed to the beautiful orange pink and yellow colours of the African safari as the sounds of “The Circle Of Life” began to play, letting us know it was time for “The Lion King.” The performance was led by Lebo M, who is the composer and producer of the show. This performance was definitely a crowd pleaser as people from all generations were singing along. 

The Six wives of Henry the Eighth then graced the stage, representing the newer musicals in the UK. the group performed “Six,” which gave us a high-energy performance and really brought the party back. The group of girls gave great vocals and their stage presence went unmatched. Not to mention the stunning costuming, which showed the different vibe of each of the wives. 

To bring the Musical Theatre segment to a close, we had the pleasure of seeing Jason Donovan reprise his role as the title character, which he originally played back in the 90s. Donovan now plays the role of The Pharoh in the show. Everybody came together to perform the iconic number “Any Dream Will Do.” this certainly was a terrific way to end the segment. Seeing all of the different shows come together in celebration of the queen and sing one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's most well-known songs was such an incredible moment to see, whether you are a musical theatre fan or not.