Review: THE BODYGUARD THE MUSICAL at China Teatern

I think there is hardly anyone who has not seen the now classic film with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner from 1992 and been enchanted by the music and the impossible love between megastar Rachel Maron and bodyguard Frank Farmer.

First time I saw the musical was in London inn 2013 and now it's time for the Swedish version and opening night with champagne and red carpet stars. A lovely mix of people like musical stars Tommy Körberg, Gunilla Backman, author Sofie Sarenbrant but the most unexpected premiere visitor was none other than Ingemar Stenmark, the slalom legend with olypmic gold medals.

Already early on it is marked that this is a musical where the show numbers are at the center when Rachel Marron (Nadja Kasanesh Holm) enters in a magnificent version of Queen of the Night. Amazing show numbers with talented dancers in spectacluar choreography, glittery dresses, incredible lighting design and incomparably good singing are the highligths of this musical and its strength and makes it stand out in a musical context. Nadja Kasanesh Holm was in Idol and impressed many with her strong singing voice and here she has many opportunities to shine, but she has tough competition from Marsha Songcome who plays her sister Nicki Marron.

It's lucky that in the musical version they let Nicki come forward and take up more space, because it is Marsha who offers real pain in her singing numbers and is sharper in the acting. Because this is a musical that is really strong and shiny in the musical numbers themselves and because they are so good, it is unfortunately noticeable that the acting does not quite reach the same level. It gets a bit stiff and angular sometimes and that magical feeling between Rachel and Frank doesn't want to appear and it doesn't really get time to blossom either because a new fantastic show number has to be performed too quickly.

Frank Farmer is played by Anastasios Soulis and apart from a karaoke number, that role is only a speaking role. Yes, it's the case that pretty much all the roles except for Rachel and Nicki are speaking roles, so is it really a musical when no dialogue is sung and only a few songs carry the plot forward? But what does it matter, it's an energetic and entertaining performance where grand, magnificent show numbers succeed each other at a fast pace and you just lean back and let it embrace you.

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