FLASHBACK FRIDAY: There's A Light

 

This week we are taking a look at some past performances in everything from PARADE to THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW to a cut song from Disney's ALLADIN presented by the very subject of this week's SOUND OFF: All Good Things, West End leading man Stuart Matthew Price! Yesterday, BWW exclusively premiered a brand new Jason Robert Brown song, the album's title song, "All Things In Time", as well as some others from NEXT TO NORMAL and a brand new West End musical called IN TOUCH, so here is some fabulous video content to go with the astounding aural content of yore! Be sure to check out SOUND OFF: All Good Things if you haven't for a complete review and generous preview of the content of the solo debut of the decade! That was Thursday, this is Friday - time to do the time warp!

Moon-Drenched Hills Of Home

Stuart Mathew Price is an extremely gifted performer, and enough praise cannot be lavished upon him for his superb solo debut disc ALL THINGS IN TIME, though credit is also due to Simon Greiff for the overall note perfect excellence from beginning to end of that masterful album and his assistance in shaping it into a such a satisfying sonic - and dramatic - experience. SimG Records is carving out quite a corner in the musical theatre music on disc or digital market! And following in the tradition of Annalene Beechey and Caroline Sheen, both of whom have been featured in this column and in SOUND OFF, we have the superlative Stuart and his disc. On stage, Stuart has a much different sort of magnetism though his versatility is seemingly endless - especially given the variety of roles he has played on the West End stage and on tour in Europe - as is evident everywhere on his solo disc. Here we have a bit of every kind of song and performance from - bare-bones cabaret to glam-rock opera - acting as a perfect introduction to a bright new talent about to blast off into the stratosphere of big stars of the theatre this century.

Since we've been on a JRB binge this week thanks to this album - his infectious songs made even more addictive when his songs are sung by Stuart - here is a rich character song from THE LAST FIVE YEARS, the crunchy blues and nasty notions of "A Miracle Would Happen". THE LAST FIVE YEARS is truly one of the strongest Contemporary Theatre scores written in the last fifty years and this song makes an excellent argument for that and JRB's prowess as a songwriter - plus, what a performance piece! (Note: the lyrics have been slightly censored so be aware of that if you know the song already.)

Singing songs by Jason Robert Brown, the aforementioned Tony-winning composer/lyricist of PARADE, as well as THE LAST FIVE YEARS, here we have Stuart giving "The Old Red Hills Of Home" - PARADE's towering opening number - a truly spectacular rendition and proving why he truly owns it. While this performance isn't quite as precisely pristine as the album opener, it's a thrilling treat all the same.

Next up in the Six (Or Seven) Times Stuart Showcase, we have some clips from a European touring production of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW with Stuart playing a decadent, vampiric riff on Riff-Raff with equal shares spine-tingling, sexy and scary results! Also: special thanks to someone out there in the dark for this sizzling reader-submitted selection!

And if one ROCKY HORROR clip just isn't enough, here's my personal favorite song from the show performed by Stuart & Co.! Listen to that note at 5:20 and the audience going completely wild - and deservedly so! Wow!

On a decidedly different note, here is Stuart singing a song from a solo showcase singing a cut song by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman from Disney's animated blockbuster ALLADIN. The song has been covered by a number of performers - most notably John Barrowman on his REFLECTIONS FROM BROADWAY - since it was cut from the film nearly twenty years ago. But it's a gem and expertly showcases the softer, more tender side of Stuart's awesome instrument - as well as his harmonizing: there's a medley element added that works better than you may ever imagine it could! The West End should certainly be proud of their boy if his album and these clips are any indication of his exhilarating talent!

Lastly (well, almost), here is one of the finest theatre or cabaret songs of the last twenty years, "Grateful" by John Bucchino, performed to perfection. Performers such as Stuart - and albums such as ALL THINGS IN TIME - make Broadway babies like this critic truly just that: grateful. "Blessed, and duly grateful." Bravo!

As a special bonus here is a preview of some other tracks from ALL THINGS IN TIME set to some behind the scenes footage of the recording sessions featuring Stuart alongside producer Simon Greiff and the rest of the collaborators who helped make the album the astounding achievement it undoubtedly is. Enjoy these clips and pick up the album already!

ALL THINGS IN TIME is available at www.SimGProductions.com

That's all for this week. Please remember that if you have discovered a particularly thrilling, unique, bizarre or hilarious Broadway-related clip to please send us a line at the link below. Until next week…