Review: ONE NIGHT ONLY PRESENTS... FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

Last night was certainly a theatrical experience like no other as we celebrated the musical production of From Here To Eternity, on the only platform we are currently able to do these things - online. The show played in the West End for six months across 2013-2014 where it gained a huge fan following, many of whom were in attendance from all over the world last night.

In a Habbo Hotel-esque initial experience, attendees were able to enter a virtual theatre through the powers of Remo some 45 minutes prior to the performance beginning. Attendees could mingle and chat with other fans and even the actors/creatives themselves should they wish to do so. This could be done by a good old-fashioned instant message or you could enable your computer's laptop/microphone to literally have a chat. The platform was easy to navigate and, with the use of alerts from the host, you were constantly kept in the loop about what was happening in the lead-up to the main show.

This exclusive event was produced by Simon Greiff of SimG Productions - who also acted as a superb host for the evening - and Musical Theatre Radio who were 'stage managing' the floor, as it were. Starting with a Q&A with the writers (Sir Tim Rice, Bill Oakes and Stuart Brayson), it was so interesting to hear how the book-turned-film-turned-musical originally came to be from those who conceived it. Brayson even treated us to a couple of numbers from the show: "Another Language" and "Fight The Fight". Aside from a slight sound quality issue (to be expected), this was a great addition to the programme.

The conversation moved on to speaking about getting the musical on its feet with director Tamara Harvey and choreographer Javier De Frutos, joining all the way from Connecticut. Even though they have both worked on a large number of productions since, you can still tell the fondness and impact that From Here To Eternity had on them. We then moved on to the fan favourite part of the evening with four leads from original London company: Darius Campbell, Siubhan Harrison, Robert Lonsdale and Rebecca Thornhill. It may be a treat for us watching, but the performers were also clearly revelling in the reunion, having not seen each other for quite some time!

One thing that I would have liked more from the evening is to have heard more music from the show. Brayson did a wonderful job, but I'd have loved to see one or multiple members of the cast perhaps accompanying him on the guitar for a song or two. The music could also have been used as a tool to break up large quantities of conversation. Whilst the interviews were incredibly interesting, it was very heavily dialogue-based.

All in all though, a tremendous celebration of a very underrated musical. Well done to the organisers and all involved for a night to remember.

To post a comment, you must register and login.