Last night Neva and I went along to the opening night of The Bodyguard Musical at Norwich Theatre and it was BRILLIANT!
Former Secret Service agent turned bodyguard, Frank Farmer, is hired to protect superstar Rachel Marron from an unknown stalker. Each expects to be in charge; what they don’t expect is to fall in love.
A romantic thriller, THE BODYGUARD features a host of irresistible classics including Queen of the Night, So Emotional, One Moment in Time, Saving All My Love, Run to You, I Have Nothing, I Wanna Dance with Somebody and one of the biggest hit songs of all time – I Will Always Love You.
Based on Lawrence Kasdan’s 1992 Oscar nominated Warner Bros. movie starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, THE BODYGUARD, directed by Thea Sharrock with book by Oscar winning Alex Dinelaris, had its world premiere at the Adelphi Theatre in London’s West End and was nominated for four Olivier Awards.
A sell out 18 month UK and Ireland tour followed, before the show returned to the West End at the Dominion Theatre ahead of a second sell out tour of the UK and Ireland in 2018/19.
To date, THE BODYGUARD has played to over 3.6 million people in 15 countries and 45 US cities. Countries include the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, China, Canada, Italy, Australia, Spain, France, the US, Austria and Japan.
Starring Zoe Birkett (ITV’s Pop Idol, Moulin Rouge, The Great British Bake Off Musical) as Rachel Marron and Ayden Callaghan (Emmerdale, Hollyoaks) as Frank Farmer.
I have always been a fan of Whitney Houston, and loved The Bodyguard film, so I was curious to see how the story was portrayed on stage.
The production started with a BANG! Literally! The opening performance for Rachel Marron was perfect, it made you feel like you were there at a concert, and Zoe’s voice is stunning.
Ayden plays the role of Fran Farmer to perfection, he is a man on a mission to protect Rachel and her family and is very understanding, even if she is not the nicest to him at first!
Her sister Nicki Marron is played by Emily-Mae, whose voice is just as amazing as Zoe’s, and when they sing together it is beautiful.
Rachel’s son Fletcher was played by Sam Stephens last night, who is a little star! Fantastic dancer and a great singer, I predict you will be seeing a lot more of him in the future.
If you are a Whitney Houston fan, then this one is definitely for you, its full of all her classics, and Zoe certainly does them all justice!
When I was leaving primary school, at our leavers assembly I danced with three friends to I Wanna Dance With Somebody, so it was lovely to be singing and dancing to that song as part of a truly worthy standing ovation!
If you are not local, don’t worry there’s still plenty more performances of The Bodyguard Musical, you can find out all the locations and dates HERE