Review: DRIVE LOUNGE: BEYOND OZ, Òran Mór

Drive Lounge is a musical theatre cabaret night created by Chiara Sparkes and Ross Baxter that aims to showcase the wealth of talent in Scotland. This edition is a concert format with the theme "Beyond Oz" and the songs featured all have a link to Wicked, The Wizard of Oz or Stephen Schwartz. 

While June's performance of Drive Lounge was damn near perfect, they've really levelled up with this one. Beyond Oz runs across two nights in the beautiful Oran Mor auditorium and the company are joined by the GPRO ensemble choir.

Kicking off the evening with a lovely bit of drama, Annie Yeomans and the GPRO ensemble perform Bells of Notre Damn straight into No-One Mourns the Wicked. This sets us up for a night of incredible vocals and beautiful musical arrangements. 

Something I remarked on in my last review of Drive Lounge is the supportive atmosphere in the room and it's something that makes these shows particularly special.

There's too many highlights to mention but if pushed, it was a real treat to hear Marc McKinnon's "So Close" from Enchanted. Having Frozen's Danielle Fiamanya perform was an absolute delight and her duet of "As Long As Your Mine" with Aidan Harkins was stunning. Katie Barnett is always a joy to see and her Scottish twist on "The Wizard and I" was wonderful. The songs from The Hunchback of Notre Dame aren't often heard in musical theatre settings (criminal) and Max Alexander-Taylor's "Out There" was sublime.

Closing out the evening was an incredible performance of "Defying Gravity" by Danielle Fiamanya, Ailsa Davidson, Katie Barnett, Chiara Ritchie and Anne Yeomans followed by "For Good" with the whole company.

It's hard not to gush about an evening like Drive Lounge that puts so much love and effort into showing off what incredible talent we have here in Scotland. Chiara Sparkes and Ross Baxter have created something truly special and their enthusiasm from the performers and audience attests to that.

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