"Burlesque" musical in Sheffield: critic praises the voices, misses the heart
The UK tour of the musical "Burlesque" plays Sheffield's Lyceum Theatre until Saturday. A new review awards two out of five stars – but praises lead Gracie O'Brien.
Symbolic image · Photo: Harry Mitchell / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
The UK tour of the musical "Burlesque" stops at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield this week, with the final performance there on Saturday 31 October. Gracie O'Brien plays Ali and Faye Brookes plays Tess, with a cast that also includes Ryan Carter, Tyler Davis and Vanessa Ela Young.
In his review published on 28 October, Louis Thompson of theatre site North West End gives the production two out of five stars. "Behind the bombast and frills, this is a poor musical theatre show," he writes, criticising a weak script: "Startlingly there is a lack of heart to this show." He reserves top praise for O'Brien, calling her "one of the best vocal performers I've seen in recent years".
A review of the tour's stop at Glasgow's King's Theatre in September was similarly divided. The blogger behind "Lisa in the Theatre" gave two and a half stars, writing that the show had "lost its polish and pizzazz", but praised the live orchestra, the big ensemble numbers and O'Brien's vocals. She still believed it had the potential to be a crowd-pleasing hit.