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Marilyn and Ella "Nicola Hughes, brings a knockout voice and charismatic dignity and humour to the part of Fitzgerald. The drama and the musical numbers ignite once we reach the historic gig at the Mocambo, as Hughes tears the place apart with an inspired, scat-singing rendition of "Mack the Knife" and serenades Monroe with a tender private performance of "My Funny Valentine". Bonnie Greer’s play allows Nicola Hughes, recently Bess in Trevor Nunn’s revival of Porgy and Bess, to display her terrific musical talent.
The play’s feel is always more inquisitive than preachy and it is filled with pertinent songs, starting with Someone to Watch Over Me and reaching a climax when Hughes puts over Mack the Knife and I’ve Got You Under My Skin with a style and class that would have exhilarated Ella herself. Porgy and Bess "Listen to Nicola's Bess and you hear how beautifully 'Porgy' works. At first she physically exaggerates the "no better than she ought to be" aspect of Bess, but once Porgy enters her life, she is tender, conflicted, absorbing, perfectly in her dramatic focus. The quality of memorable utterance she brings to the lyrics is glorious. Her sweet voice and bright enunciation etch phrases such as "Porgy, I's your woman now...mornin' time and evenin' time and summer time and winter time" into your being. Nicola Hughes's deeply moving Bess Clarke Peters and Nicola Hughes are richly moving in the title roles and sing with robust power and passion. Nicola Hughes is fabulous as Bess Nicola Hughes is a compelling Bess Hughes finds dignity and a touching vulnerability in a woman at first described as a "liquor-guzzling slut". Powerful Peters and Hughes Hot Mikado I defy anyone to resist the performers’ exuberance and professionalism — and any red or even pink- blooded male not to be enchanted by Nicola Hughes’s Yum-Yum, who combines wit, charisma, a strong singing voice and even a bit of twinkle in the toe department. Nicola Hughes, who always offers superb value and ought to be a major star, must be the yummiest Yum-Yum of them all. She exudes both a wicked sense of humour and a sizzling sexuality. Hughes also has a superbly strong and soulful voice, heard to tremendous effect as she admires her own beauty in The Sun and I. Simply Heavenly Nicola Hughes is sensational as the bad girl, a brassy bosomy bottle blonde who struts her stuff to electrifying effect in a show -stopping, aptly titled number called "Let's Ball Awhile". Simply Heaven sent - Nicola Hughes in strutting, sizzling form. Fosse Nicola Hughes is the show's magnetic and generous voiced star. A star is born. Chicago Nicola Hughes a stunning new talent with a voice that flows like molton lava. The smouldering, amazonian Nicola Hughes majors in irony. She is deliciously incongruous as she switches between sneering grandeur and the comic disingenuousness. |