REVIEW: PETULA CLARK

BOURNEMOUTH PAVILION THEATRE

PETULA Clark is a genuine showbiz phenomenon. At the age of 83, she’s still touring, still making quality albums, and still delivering a two-hour concert show, singing flawlessly and entertaining a rapt audience without taking a single drink. What a pro!

During a sparkling career of over 70 years, she’s sold more than 68 million records worldwide (often singing in three or four different languages), has starred in movies and in stage musicals on Broadway and in the West End, and remains endearingly modest.

Opening this stylish concert with You And I from the movie Goodbye Mr Chips and her million-selling pop hit from the 1960s Don’t Sleep In The Subway Darling, Clark established an immediate rapport with her adoring audience.

Her backing band of piano, bass, drums, keyboards, and guitar is superb, enabling Clark to deliver distinctive covers of Paul McCartney’s bittersweet Blackbird and a rocky version of Peggy Lee’s Fever.

Sprinkled with relevant and fascinating personal anecdotes about Fred Astaire, Charley Chaplin and Peggy Lee, and including numbers from her stage musical Sunset Boulevard and her movie Finian’s Rainbow, Clark also plays piano and writes songs.

The wonderful finale featured the hooky hit I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love and the lyrically beautifully-crafted world-wide smash Downtown.

Following a heartfelt standing ovation, the moving encore was the original audience-connector I’ll Be Here For You.

Petula Clark plays London’s Drury Lane Theatre Royal this Sunday, October 23.

Brendan McCusker