A Beautiful Noise is a concert style show featuring the music of Neil Diamond and other artists from his era. The show is fronted by Fisher Stevens and features a live band and 2 backing singers who are also used to showcase some of the female artists work.

The set up of the show is very simple. There was a cheesy voice over and VT featured occasionally to try to give some sort of background on Diamond. The style of voiceover and many of the clips simply felt outdated and irrelevant. This could have easily been done away with to the shows benefit and instead focused on Fisher himself, allowing him to develop more of a rapport with the audience in between the songs and give the show a fresher feel. There was also an odd moment of tribute to artists that have passed away but all of those noted on the VT were male with no mention of the likes of Aretha Franklin or Whitney Huston.

The show however is packed full of Diamond’s hits full of up tempo numbers to Diamond’s slower numbers. In early parts of the show especially, other artists songs are shoehorned in although it is unclear what purpose this serves when the fans are clearly there for Diamond. That being said one of my personal highlights was Samantha Palin, one of the backing singers who delivered a stunning performance of Streisand’s ‘Woman In Love.’

There is no doubt that Fisher is a talented singer and impersonator. He is just as able to sing the slower numbers as he is the bigger numbers and by the end of the night has nearly the entire audience on their feet dancing.  He is charismatic and has the Neil Diamond fanatics in the audience eating out of the palm of his hand.

Whilst this show is more of a concert than a celebration of Diamond’s life and music, it is certainty a crowd pleaser. The style itself is outdated but the underlying talent is certainty there.

A Beautiful Noise returns to the Lyric Theatre on 10th June and 8th July. To find out more about the show visit their website.

If you like this review you might also like my review of the Simon & Garfunkel story,  Thriller Live and Dirty Dancing.