Skip to main content

Review of The ELO Experience at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Last year I attended The ELO on courtesy reviewing tickets for an official job for The Public Reviews website. Due to this I had to make a somewhat professional account of the show. I attended the show again yesterday as a paying guest and I write for my own personal blog, so expect frivolous.


In my "official" review last year (here) I made no mention of the fact that I was a huge ELO fan long before I found myself seeing the simply superb ELO Experience. This year I was once again joined by my companion of last year as well as a couple of pensioners, including a seventy-nine year old teenager and ELO superfan. It was all to make a most perfect night as once again the ELO Experience, led by our Jeff Lynne, a.k.a Andy Louis provided perfect representations of those classic tunes.

In a more relaxed state with no pressing need to make mental notes for review, I felt the whole experience an even more joyful affair. This is what truly comes across from the ELO Experience. On that stage are eight people who visibly are loving what they are doing. They have an infectious repartee with one another, there is fun on their faces. This to the outsider appears to be more than a job.

The show itself was basically the same as that of last year, with I believe (memory serving) a couple of different songs. Everything was there once again from the very classic songs as well as including a few of the same jokes from last year. However it mattered not, this was just pure musical joy and more of the same, was always going to be just more of the fun.

So once again we had the delightful Lego film during Horace Wimp, the uplifting Olympic footage during Hold On Tight and my very favourite ELO song Livin' Thing once again closing the first half.

The second half as before became a more relaxed affair with many up and dancing at the sides and in the boxes. I didn't this year detect a jiving couple during Beethoven, but there did seem to be more £20, sorry quid glow sticks on display. I know that I was more relaxed, and yes therefore more embarrassing (sorry once again you know who). I was just simply enjoying every minute.


As I know from the company I kept, music can stir memories like no other. So whether they be bitter sweet, flash backs to your youth, or just unadulterated madness, the ELO Experience brings it in the bucket load.

The best evening I have spent in the Derngate auditorium to date full stop and I am ready, just ready for the next time already. A simply must see if you are an ELO fan, and very much maybe a must see if you are not. I have no other way of recommending the ELO Experience any higher.

««««« with a little strange magic on top!


Performance reviewed: Thursday 24th September at the Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton. 

The ELO Experience performed at the Royal & Derngate (Derngate) on Saturday 6th September and are currently touring until Wednesday 3rd December. Full details can be found on their website here: http://www.elotribute.com/

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Murder She Didn't Write at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Murder She Didn't Write , stopping off for a four-day run at Royal & Derngate on a lengthy UK tour, treads the now well-worn path of an improvisational evening of theatre entertainment. Unsurprisingly, from the title, this show from Degrees of Error's takes a murder mystery as its inspiration, with the story influenced by ideas from the audience each evening. Due to this, Murder She Didn't Write and a review are very much an individual affair. What I saw in my evening at the theatre will differ significantly from what the audience will see the following evening; however, the fine performers will remain. The touring cast, in no particular order, is Lizzy Skrzypiec, Rachael Procter-Lane, Peter Baker, Caitlin Campbell, Stephen Clements, Douglas Walker, Harry Allmark, Rosalind Beeson, Sylvia Bishop, Emily Brady, Alice Lamb, Sara Garrard, Peta Maurice and Matthew Whittle. For my performance, Skrzypiec, Procter-Lane, Baker, Walker, Bishop, and Clements were on stage alongsid...

Review of Immune by R&D Youth Theatre at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

The cover note for the script of Oladipo Agboluaje's Immune describes it as "a challenging science fiction play with a large cast", and the word challenging in this case is not a lie. This is a fast paced, multi-cast changing script which leaves little room for error for its young cast in the performance. If the script isn't enough to handle for the young performers, director Christopher Elmer-Gorry and designer Carl Davies have made the situation even more complex for the actors with the set and stage work. Having to manhandle great panels on wheels and a huge cube, which also splits in two occasionally, during scene changes requires skill, coordination and cooperation of a high level. As if all this is not enough, the actual story is epic enough for the relatively small stage of the Royal. Attempting to form an apocalyptic world (albeit only happening in Plymouth) offers challenges in itself, but Agboluaje's script does that in a sort of apocalypse in the teac...

Review of War Horse at Milton Keynes Theatre

Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse was published in 1982. While it was highly regarded and thought to be his best work, perhaps it eventually came to most people's attention when this striking play stormed the stage, thanks to the National Theatre, back in 2007. Now, War Horse arrives at Milton Keynes Theatre as part of another vast UK tour. Adapted by Nick Stafford in association with the award-winning Handspring Puppet Company, War Horse tells the story of the First World War through the eyes of one horse, Joey, sold for a record price from a family battle but eventually shipped off to war-torn France much to the distress of his original owner, 16-year old Albert. The sprawling and epic story should take some staging, but the vast cast, beautiful structure, stunning folk music and, of course, what this play has become known for, magnificent puppetry, all bring the story to life. This production, directed by Tom Morris and revival director Katie Henry, is a magnificent thin...