Review: LA LA LAND IN CONCERT, Royal Albert Hall

There was a time when the hottest scandal on everybody’s lips was La La Land nearly receiving an Oscar for the most important award of the night. It was mortifying. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty come on stage carrying the wrong envelope (Emma Stone’s, in fact, who had just won Best Actress for La La Land). After the applause calms down, Beatty starts to read off the list in hand, confused. He pushes the envelope into Dunaway, almost in a panic. She doesn’t notice anything amiss and reads off the biggest title in the line-up of names, La La Land.

Everybody cheers, the producers and actors jump to the podium, speeches ensue. A member of staff in a headset calmly storms across the stage, grabbing the red envelope. By now, everybody knows something’s going on: this is a worst-case scenario happening live and the world is watching. The statuettes are handed to the Moonlight team from their La La Land colleagues. Everyone stands awkwardly. Fin. You couldn’t write it.

But the film is more than a blip in Academy Awards history. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, it touched the hearts of young romantics everywhere. A jazz musician and an actress meet while they’re both chasing their dreams in contemporary Hollywood. Drawn together by their shared ambition, they struggle to support one another as success threatens their frail relationship.

Featuring music by Justin Hurwitz and elegant lyrics by Broadway babies Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, it stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. The final chapter in the Royal Albert Hall’s Films in Concert series is a bona fide tear-jerker. Hurwitz himself conducts the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra while Gosling and Stone fall in love on screen. It’s magical.

His compositions gain further life performed live. Forget “City of Stars” or the emotional “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)”, it's the instrumental “Planetarium” that takes the crown as a piece of sheer wonder. The attention to detail is stunning, with even the solo keys played by Sebastian’s character being recreated just below the projection. The dulcet tones of the romance become melancholic and wistful as the cracks begin to show in their bond, yet a constantly whimsical air permeates Hurwitz’s score. The melodies are gorgeously lavish, so much that the few silent moments - like Seb’s first verbal blow shot at Mia during a surprise dinner at home - hit hard.

As tension starts to bubble, the homages to classic Hollywood movie-musicals sprinkled throughout the film glow under the Hall’s lights while the perfectly unruly woodwind section meets soaring strings and jazzy high hats. The piano shines, of course, as the main event. The evening revealed that there are actually very few fullly sung songs in Chazelle’s work, but, with so many adaptations popping up all around town, Hurwitz’s exquisite tunes, and Pasek and Paul’s touch, the only question that remains is: why is this not a stage musical yet?

The next instalment of the Royal Albert Hall's Films in Concert series is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in Concert on from 14 - 17 March 2024.

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