Don Black’s From The Heart in the West End – review

With an Oscar, a Golden Globe and an Olivier, plus a couple of Tony Awards and an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame all under his belt, Don Black has done pretty well for a working-class kid from Hackney. His six decades-plus career as a lyricist really is something to make a song and dance about, which is precisely what Black and director-choreographer Nick Winston are doing with this amiable cabaret.

From The Heart is a smorgasbord of material Black worked on with composers as varied as Gary Barlow, Mike Batt, Natasha Bedingfield and the recently deceased George Fenton, although Grammy winner Geoff Stephens gets the most exposure, with seven numbers. Understandably, the songs seem to be picked primarily to show off Black’s pithy, witty, relatable lyrics, so most of the time the words are outshining the music which is fine, but after about half an hour it starts to sound a bit like aural wallpaper.

Fans who know Black primarily from things like the Bond movie themes (“Diamonds Are Forever” anyone?!), the anthem lump-in-the-throat title track from Born Free, or his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber (Sunset Boulevard, Aspects of Love and Tell Me on a Sunday) will have to wait until the megamix-style finale for the songs they adore.

There’s also a special guest at every performance, and on opening night it was Michael Ball, who treated us to a vibrato-heavy, slightly laboured version of his signature aria “Love Changes Everything” from Aspects.

The core quintet of performers – Caroline O’Connor, Frances Mayli McCann, Shona McGarty, Michael D. Xavier and Clive Rowe – do well by the material, although it’s particularly O’Connor and Xavier who have the requisite lightness of touch. The others, although in fine voice, have an occasional tendency to over-egg the emotion which goes against the late-night New York supper club vibe that Black’s own amusing voiceover tells us the show is aiming for.

There are some lovely things here, especially O’Connor’s versatility and innate comic flair, and Black’s heartwarmingly professed devotion to his late wife Shirley, and Winston wisely doesn’t over-complicate the staging, his choreography minimal but stylish when it occurs.

From The Heart feels a little lost in a traditional proscenium arch theatre though, despite an intricate lighting design by Ben Cracknell, and the superb musicianship of MD Joseph Church on keys and Oliver Copeland on bass. It feels like its natural home would be a cabaret room like Crazy Coqs or Ronnie Scott’s.

Black’s work, enjoyable and popular as it is, mostly lacks the fire and ingenuity of Sondheim or even the verbal dexterity of Tim Rice in his heyday, but his sheer prolificity is undeniably impressive. As a celebration of his artistic longevity and the sheer affection with which he personally is held in the entertainment industry, From The Heart is a very pleasant 80 minutes, although it sometimes feels like a show mounted more for friends and family rather than West End audiences.