REVIEW
PHOTO COURTESY OF DUBLIN WORLDWIDE PRODUCTIONS
Duncan Royce stole the show as the famed lead singer of Queen Freddie Mercury on the opening night of "Rock Legends" at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. Other acts included the music of ABBA and The Beatles
Mercury rises
in ‘Rock Legends’
Freddie Mercury steals the show, ABBA adds G-rated sex appeal and light comedy, and the Beatles are the weakest link by far, in "Rock Legends," the big-scale celebrity impersonation "tribute show" that's playing the Blaisdell Concert Hall this weekend.
The hall was comfortably full for opening night on Friday. The show closes with two performances today.
Duncan Royce (Freddie Mercury) personifies high-octane charisma from the second he takes the stage as the famed lead singer of Queen. Royce has the look, the moves, the attitude, and -- most importantly -- the vocal range and power necessary to do justice to Mercury's repertoire. Strutting and swaggering through some songs, perched coyly atop a stool for others, Royce is a consummate entertainer in all respects. Anyone with tickets for the "cheap seats" should take binoculars in order to fully appreciate the subtleties in his performance (The creators of the show may be forgiven for not going to the trouble of finding look-alikes for Mercury's bandmates; Honolulu rocker Vernon Sakata distinguishes himself as the designated stand-in for guitarist Brian May on "We Will Rock You").
Danielle Murphy (Frida), Diane O'Sullivan (Agnetha), Mark Pollard (Bjorn) and Wilson Young (Benny) open the show with an engaging recreation of the squeaky clean stage personas and Euro-pop sound of ABBA. O'Sullivan and Murphy are perfect in portraying the subtle "eye candy" sexuality of the ABBA women. Pollard plays Bjorn as the comic non-sexual male vamp of the foursome. They're especially strong vocally on "Waterloo" and "Dancing Queen" -- O'Sullivan also stands out as a soloist.
The set list lacks several of ABBA's biggest hits, however, and may reflect the tastes of the British Commonwealth where "Rock Legends" originated rather than here in the states. How to else to explain the omission of "Fernando" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You," which hit #13 and #14 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100, and the inclusion of other songs that didn't even reach #50 on the chart?
But at least this "ABBA" does justice to the music of the original group. Anyone with more than passing knowledge of the Beatles' recordings will be appalled by several of the orchestral arrangements and baffled by the blatant misrepresentation of the Fab Four as a concert act.
It starts with a trashing of "Love Me Do" that is so terribly orchestrated that it is hard to tell whether the song is being done as a spoof or a throwaway. Next comes an equally overproduced assault on "Twist & Shout" that lacks any trace of the raw power that Beatles poured into it back in 1963.
The orchestral arrangements of "Revolution" and "Get Back" are played so much faster and soullessly than the Beatles' originals that it feels as if conductor Barry Potts and the cast are trying to get through them as quickly as possible.
Beatles fans will find George (Mark Lawson) singing lead on "Penny Lane" and "Get Back" instead of Paul (Russ Spencer), and John (Jonathan Black) replacing Paul on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." On the other hand, none of the faux Fab Four sounds much like the Beatle they're impersonating so why shouldn't they all have a go at singing whichever songs they fancy?
When Spencer gets the lead on songs McCartney sang he does a good job. "Yesterday" is nicely done by Spencer, Potts and the Symphony, and is actually a fair representation of the Beatles' work. Spencer also does a nice job launching "Hey Jude" but the arrangement drags much too long.
The original Beatles were excellent musicians, and while it's not totally impossible that Black, Lawson and Spencer may be making some contribution in that department, anyone who looks toward the right side of the stage will notice that three local musicians -- bassist John Kolivas and guitarists Jeff Peterson and Vernon Sakata -- appear to be doing most of the work.
Questions of content and presentation also come up with the rendition of "Sgt. Pepper" that includes the intro for Billy Shears, but then skips "With A Little Help From My Friends" and goes directly into "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)." Doing "With A Little Help From My Friends" afterwards doesn't make sense.
Black has a nice solo spot with "Imagine" but the song doesn't belong in a Beatles show since Lennon recorded it after the group broke up.
