With the massive influence the blue planet has had in the past year it was no surprise that the Motorpoint arena was almost packed tonight by an audience eager to see it supersized.
It was lovely to see so many families with their little ones, who obviously were big fans of the show.
The Orchestra, wonderfully conducted by Matthew Freeman, joined the stage to a polite ripple of applause five minutes late. To begin with it was captivating and mesmerising, the 80 piece orchestra were accompanied with by a choir who had beautiful haunting voices. The immersive original score they performed was by Hans Zimmer and Bleeding Fingers Music. The music that accompanied the Lightfoot crabs section was the highlight for me.
Anita Rani was the host, she did try her best to get the audience going but it didn’t come across natural and was quite cringingly awkward. The fact that they brought her on to explain what was happening in the clips every few minutes, instead of the normal commentary, completely spoiled it, not only did we not hear or see David the show kept getting stopped!
The production did try to create an atmosphere with smoke and lights but nothing is the same as David speaking to you on your sofa. Plus for those sitting in the stalls the lights were blinding every few seconds, which was not a nice experience.
Some might say that it was a bit like being at an expensive cinema that kept getting interrupted by an annoying lady every few minutes…the even more cynical may feel like this was cashing in on what David has managed to accomplish this past year. Those are probably the many that left half time.
Review by Josie Opal
