West End Sessions is a concert series that is taking place at Brooks Mews Bar, a cute wine bar tucked down a pretty Mayfair street. West End sessions has seen the likes of Kerry Ellis and Alice Fearn grace its stage but when I was there I was treated to Christina Bianco alongside the host and organiser Daniel Koek.

The venue is very intimate….with around 50 people squeezed in there it broke the ice very quickly and I was soon chatting to the other couple we were sharing our table with. This intimacy really does give it a unique vibe and I felt like I was being treated to something very special. There is table service throughout the evening with not only a good selection of wines but a good selection of charcuterie. Due to how squeezed together we were it was slightly distracting when others around us were being served although the show was in 3 parts so the multiple breaks did help manage this issue.

The event itself it the brainchild of Daniel Koek and he took the stage to sing numbers such as Til I Hear You Sing from Love Never Dies and Out There from The Hunchback of Notre Damn. It is easy to see when he is belting out these numbers how he has played iconic roles as Valjean and the Phantom and he made every number he sang appear effortless.

His guest for the night needs no introduction but for the sake of completeness I will. Christina Bianco rose to fame on YouTube due to her impressions but since then she has graced both stage and screen has recently played the role of Glinda in the Wizard of Oz at The London Palladium. Bianco is a born entertainer, from her ability to make the who audience feel as if you are being let in on a joke together through to her hilarious and accurate impressions right through to her singing in her own voice and bringing the house to their feet, she knows how to work a crowd. Even for an evening such as this her repertoire was varied, we heard her famous version of Let It Go sung by a variety of Diva’s, we had a smattering of Disney, and the Glee version of Suddenly Seymour with all of the option ups!!

Koek and Bianco also joined together to duet a few numbers and they not only sounded great together but were clearly having a ball in doing so and brought the audience along with them.

Whilst the success of the event will hugely rely upon the guest stars ability to hold the crowd, from the look of the line up this is not going to be a concern. I would absolutely return to West End Sessions., especially if I was a fan of the guest star already and would probably take a gamble on those that I may not have seen perform before if the quality of the latest one is anything to go by. If you want something different yet stagey to do in London…. I can’t recommend this enough.

You can find out more about West End sessions via their Instagram page.

If you like this review you might also like my review of The Wizard of Oz, The Piano Works in the West End and Hadestown.