Review of Live by the Lake Gershwin Concert starring Michael Ball, Gina Beck and Kerry Ellis

Was lucky enough to be at the Michael Ball Gershwin Concert Live by the Lake at Kenwood House yesterday afternoon  which also featured Kerry Ellis, Gina Beck and David Bardsley (sub for David Shannon) accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra conducted by the inimitable Jae Alexander.

Despite London Overground trying to ruin it for me with works on the line and no trains, I managed to navigate my way to Hampstead on the bus and it was well worth it.  

Highlights for me were Gina Beck's The Man I Love, By Strauss (my favourite) and I Love You Porgy: Kerry's Someone to Watch Over Me and her duet of Let's Call The Whole Thing Off with  David Bardsley.

Michael Ball joined them for the penultimate number before the interval and stayed with the show for the entire second half with great renditions of numbers including I Got Rhythm, S'Wonderful, Nice Work If You Can Get It and Our Love is Here to Stay.

The concert started at 5:00 pm and the cast would have been happy to go on past the 7:30 pm curfew imposed by the local residents (led by Warren Mitchell/Alf Garnett) because of noise levels.  But they did manage to fit in an encore and when everyone was up dancing.

All in all a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon in a perfect setting with some excellent performances by seasoned performers. You can see some of the performances here.