WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE?: London Coliseum
WHEN?: 2/10/20
SETLIST: I Feel The Earth Move; Tight Connection To My Heart; Here, There and Everywhere; Will You Love Me Tomorrow?; When A Woman; It’s Too Late; So Far Away; That’s The Way It Is; I’ll Never Love Again; Rain and Fire; You’ve Got A Friend; Beautiful; Natural Woman
Janson is shortlisted as Best Actress in a supporting role in a musical in the rescheduled Olivier Awards this month for her role as Anne Hathaway in Max Martin’s & Juliet.
- Read on for reasons including the reasons behind some of the song choices in tonight’s set including 1 by Lady Gaga
At 9 nominations it is the most shortlisted show and we said of Janson: ‘(she sings) brilliantly in a role where she is both guide to Juliet and combatant to her husband’ and of the musical: ‘it would be a tragedy if you missed it’.
Janson sings Celine Dion’s That’s The Way It Is from the musical during this set and says of & Juliet: ‘It’s an unusual show containing the songs of producer Max Martin, the 3rd best selling songwriter of all time. It’s a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, looking at what would have happened if Juliet had decided she wasn’t going to kill herself.’
But there’s much more to Janson than that show as this 50 minutes in her company proves.
Introducing Tight Connection To My Heart, she says: ‘Two years ago Sheila Atim sang this at the Oliviers and it brought the house down.’
There’s a great deal of thought in the song choice tonight with a little known Beatles song reinterpreted by Celine Dion for an album with their producer George Martin (Here, There and Everywhere) which surprises us.
We loved Janson’s Songs From The Stage with the Leading Ladies including Beverley Knight and Amber Riley which made the top 20 and earned a Brit nomination and from it she sings Carole King’s Will You Love Me Tomorrow?.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is where we first fell in love with Janson and its songs are well represented tonight as our leading lady is backed by a pianist and guitarist as well as taking a turn behind the keys herself.
Included in the set is a track from her 2019 album Cassidy, the bulk of which she wrote herself.
Another pleasant surprise is the inclusion of for us the stand-out track from A Star Is Born.
Janson says: ”I saw an amazing film, I wasn’t a massive Lady Gaga fan but I thought she was absolutely brilliant. She had a hit with Shallow but I fell in love with this next song which is just a beautifully written piece of music.’
We knew how impressive Janson was before watching this show and, while this 50 minutes in her company underlined that, we also gained a real sense of who she is and the music she loves.
monstagigz 
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