Rating: 
Summary: Watch Out for Sandy Lam
Review: First of all, let me clarify one point on the editorial review: there is no Coco Lee, but Sandy Lam. There had been auditions for this show and Coco Lee was not approved by Mr. Weber. Sandy Lam had not attended the audition, but Mr. Weber waited for her completing her own CD to be on the guest list of the show.Sandy Lam is indeed the superstar in Hong Kong and her exposure in Asia is intense. All Chinese know about this lady, who has been famous since her first day back in 1985. In this show, Ms. Lam had shown her talent in singing, in performance 2.5 songs of Mr. Weber's most famous song collection. She had proved herself to be fully competent with the musical stage requirement and her singing quality is so good. It's a shame that she did not sing more, but "I don't know how to love him" performed by Ms. Lam had indeed opened up a new horizon for Asian artists in performing major Western productions. Maybe you will ask: why don't you mention Elaine? cos' she is all along a very boring singer. I am sorry to say this, but this is something very true.
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful Midge!
Review: Having been a fan of Midge's since his Ultravox days in the late 70s and early 80s, this DVD was everything I could have wanted. I thought his Breathe CD was absolutely fantastic and Move Me was even better! His music always fills me with emotion. Powerful stuff. He is a brilliant songwriter and talented performer. His whole band on this DVD is pretty impressive. The keyboardist is wonderful. Midge's guitar work is also great. My favorite tracks were most of the ones from the Move Me CD. Monster is the most powerful tune! Alone is also a favorite. If you are a fan of Midge's work, this DVD will not let you down, so buy it! You won't be sorry!
Rating: 
Summary: I wish I could see the whole show soon.
Review: I have been waiting for this DVD for a long time, and I am still waiting. Just last week, I luckily caught the show on our local PBS, but unluckily it was already at the last portion of the show, when Kris Phillips singing "The Music of the Night". But still, the segments I have seen is good enough to convince me that it's definitely worth watching, besides, Tony Vincent (Simon Zealotes in the new stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar) was on it, how can you resist that? Kris Phillips is not arrogant as one of the viewers commented, on the contrary, you'd find him quite charming and a real gentleman, if you knew him a little more. He has a fine fine voice, but seems lacking expressions and ebullience. He sang "The Music Of The Night" nicely, and the duet with Elaine Paige "The Perfect Year" was superb. But his rendition of "Sunset Boulevard" was not so impressive, showing that he is not a very good lyric singer. Elaine Paige is still the best. She sang "As If We Never Said Goodbye" with such emotion and sincerity that you'd feel she was Norma Desmond. "No Matter What" was arranged lovely by adding the children's voices, more or less resembling the one in the original musical "Whistle Down the Wind", only this time, in Chinese. Too bad I just saw Tony Vincent appeared in the last two songs as the lead singer, along with Kris Phillips, Elaine Paige, and Sandy Lam. He looked great, and surely would he sound great, too. I am really looking forward to seeing his other performance in this concert. The last number "You'll Always Be My Friend" ("Yong Yuan De Peng You" in Chinese) ended the show perfectly, especially as the whole company singing the line "Yong Yuan De Peng You means you'll always be my friend", it rocked the concert hall. This concert may not be as captivating as the ALW 50th Birthday Concert in London, but I find it very special, for the fresh voices, for Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical numbers, and for its being in China.
Rating:
Summary: A surprising gem
Review: I havent been an Ultravox fan but I bought this after revisiting them via Live Aid. This is one of those serendipitous discoveries you make when you take a risk.
It is just a really great concert. Midge sings with great emotional expression and the music is really full-bodied and up to date - even those older hits he covers really well. His words are poetic and reminiscent to me of David Grey.
It is well filmed and there is really not a weak song on it.
It also has one of the strongest starts I've seen to a concert.
I am now won over and will be keeping an eye on him in future.
He is also someone who would appeal to a wide range of agegroups.
This is a 'Wow' rating from me.
Rating:
Summary: Webbers music makes it worth wild
Review: I purchased this dvd while on holiday in England. I was very much excited about it and I wasn't all that disappointed with it. Elaine Paige was wonderful, even though during some songs she seemed a bit hoarse and in oters she seemed out of breath and unable to reach some notes. Overall I found the dvd very enjoyable and only wish that I could watch it now that I am home. Hehehe my player is supposet o be PAL compatible but it won't play it. Get your self a copy the music of Webber is always a treat especially with someone like Elaine Paige highlighting the show.
Rating:
Summary: You MUST see the extra's on the DVD
Review: I saw this when it was on Australian TV and enjoyed it but felt there was so much missing. When the credits came up I found out that we had not seen ALL of the show and I was told that the DVD would have "extra's".
I patiently waited to buy the DVD and am very glad I did.
When you see the "extra" you will discover how hard it was for the cast and crew to rehearse the show due to the venue not being available to rehearse when they needed it, and the things that got in their way and made it difficult for them to do the show. Up till 24 hours beforehand, many of the cast had not been able to reherse on the "real" stage. It just makes the show more special for me because of all the hard work that went into it.
John Bowles was wonderful singing "All I ask of you" (It was so obvious how wonderful he would have been when he played that part in the Australian production of "Phantom"), Tony Vincent was wonderful and I would love to see him live, Elaine Paige was fantastic as usual and Kris Phillips was a wonderful link between the Chinese and English versions of the songs.
I would recommend this to all my friends who love ALW's music
Rating:
Summary: I watched the show in Shanghai in 2001
Review: I watched the show in Shanghai at the end of last year. I wonder if the DVD is a taping of the shows. It was great to hear the famous songs live and see the stars in person. But coming in the backdrop of the 50th celebration of the Andrew Loyd Webber, it's not that impressing, even though I only watched the 50th cel on TV. Kris Philips (Fei, Xiang) and Sandy Lam (Lin, Yilian) are so so so famous to most Chinese. They just don't strike me as that famous on musical theatres. (Frankly speaking, I didn't know who Sandy Lam was until I talked to a friend, and was also surprised to learn that Kris Philips was Fei, Xiang, that I know of.) For Andrew L W fans, I would recommend the 50th cel DVD over this one. For FeiXiang and Sandy Lam fans, I wonder if most appreciate them much singing the "western" songs. But still, it was a nice experience.
Rating:
Summary: Kris Phillips -- The most shining star
Review: I went to see "The music of ALW" at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, last year, it's wonderful performance. In fact, we have been attracted to see the performance by Kris Phillips, who's so famous and beloved in China. The first time when we know he would attend the show of ALW, we were so pleased. We've known that he had such experience in US, it's great pleasure for us to see his singing ALW's song in China! Even many his fans flew to Beijing to see the show, they're from Guangzhou, Tianjin, Chengde, Shanghai(they even don't want to miss only one show of him!), Taiwan and US, after the performance, everyone said:"It's worthy!"
Surely that Elaine Paige is an International Star, and she's gorgeours when she's singing "Don't cry for me, Argentina" and "Memory".
We're so thankful that Kris brought such amazing wonderful musical world to us, it's so beautiful!! Like Beijing Evening Newspaper and Beijing Youth Daily reported: "...But the most shining star is Kris Phillips, he is the most touching singer, the most kind host, the best MC..." "When Kris Phillips was going to the stage, it's shining, he's more attractive than he's in the pop music world..."
In a short word, this is a DVD worth of being kept!:)
Rating:
Summary: Kris Phillips -- The most shining star
Review: I went to see "The music of ALW" at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, last year, it's wonderful performance. In fact, we have been attracted to see the performance by Kris Phillips, who's so famous and beloved in China. The first time when we know he would attend the show of ALW, we were so pleased. We've known that he had such experience in US, it's great pleasure for us to see his singing ALW's song in China! Even many his fans flew to Beijing to see the show, they're from Guangzhou, Tianjin, Chengde, Shanghai(they even don't want to miss only one show of him!), Taiwan and US, after the performance, everyone said:"It's worthy!"
Surely that Elaine Paige is an International Star, and she's gorgeours when she's singing "Don't cry for me, Argentina" and "Memory".
We're so thankful that Kris brought such amazing wonderful musical world to us, it's so beautiful!! Like Beijing Evening Newspaper and Beijing Youth Daily reported: "...But the most shining star is Kris Phillips, he is the most touching singer, the most kind host, the best MC..." "When Kris Phillips was going to the stage, it's shining, he's more attractive than he's in the pop music world..."
In a short word, this is a DVD worth of being kept!:)
Rating:
Summary: It's a great show in China
Review: I've seen the both shows last year in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, actually, there're many friends had been attracted to the show because of Kris Phillips, who's so famous and beloved in China. Even many friends from Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Taiwan and US. After the show, they said the long distance travel is so worthy!!
It's great pleasure for his audience know that there's a chance that we can see his singing ALW's songs, though we've known that he had such experience when he was in US.
We're grateful that Kris brought us to such a beautiful musical theater world, we did impressed by ALW's songs. Elaine Paige is really an international star, she was great in the shows.
In that show, Kris also acted as a gorgeous host, like Beijing Evening Newspaper and Beijing Youth Daily reported :" .. During the show, the most shining part is Kris Phillips, he's the most touching singer, the most kind host, the most gentleman partner...""When Kris Phillips went to the stage, he's more attractive than he was in the pop music albums..."
Anyway, all other casts are good, it's a precious DVD that worth to keep.
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