I took my mother to see “Over The Rainbow” the musical about the life story of Eva Cassidy at Richmond Theatre last night. If you like Eva Cassidy’s songs then you should see it. Sarah Jane Buckley from Hollyoaks plays her role very well and sings beautifully and the set, whilst simple, has a backdrop of original footage taken from her life. She was renowned for taking songs and making them her own and for listening “to your heart, your dreams, your spirit”. “Songbird”, “Imagine” and “Autumn Leaves” were the songs that stood out the most. The scene at the beginning of Act 2, set in Blues Alley with Chuck Brown was lively and got the audience cheering from their seats.
Such a tragedy to have died aged 33 from melanoma and the last few scenes are very haunting and moving. Lots of sniffles going on in the audience.
Even more tragic was the line “you still sing the pants off Witney and Madonna” and I wondered, given that it was the day that Witney died, whether they should have considered changing that line – especially since coincidentally they were both born in 1963.
