Review: Hooray for Hollywood - Usher Hall, Edinburgh

ANYONE who fell under the spell of the charismatic John Wilson and his sensational orchestra after watching their concert of classic songs from MGM musicals would know that show was a hard act to follow.

The MGM concert featured some of the greatest numbers ever written for the movies and in the most sumptuous arrangements and the Glasgow concert last November was spine-tingling from start to finish. This year’s tour – which rolled into the Usher Hall on Wednesday – focused on songs from musicals made by every other studio. RKO, Disney, Paramount, Warners and Fox were all represented (rather bizarrely in a couple of the choices) – and while the concert featured fewer thrills than last year’s, it still produced magical moments aplenty, from the swinging 42nd Street, which introduced the quartet of singers, through to such stand-out duets as Noah Stewart and Sarah Fox’s electrifying One Hand, One Heart and Stewart’s commanding solo on Sigmund Romberg’s Serenade.

These two more operatic singers produced the showstopping vocal moments, but Kim Criswell and Matthew Ford were at times overpowered and overshadowed by the orchestra, notably on the exquisite The Man Who Got Away.

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Indeed, the John Wilson Orchestra – the happiest and most animated you’re likely to see – was the main star, producing a gorgeous sound with choreographed bow-taking (each section did a wee comedy turn) that couldn’t have been better staged by the great Busby Berkeley himself.

RATING: ****

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