Review: SONGS FROM THE SHOWS at The English Church

Songs From the Shows, 3S Company, 30th of March in the English Church, Stockholm

Wonderful sunny and warm spring day in Stockholm,. A perfect day for a trip to Djurgården where the first cherry blossoms was in bloom and Magnolia's buds have started to show up. But shortly before it was time to go to the English Church for the concert "Songs from the Show" the clouds gathered together more and more so it felt pretty good to go into the English Church to listen to wonderful musical songs. Even if the English people currently can agree on Brexit at least they know how to make great musical songs. The English Church is a small, fine church in Gothic style that reminds you of film settings like the castles with large stone arches as in Ivanhoe. For a while it felt like being in England and on West End.

The 3S Company consists of Faye Austin-Nordin, Kimberley Akester and Erika Dittmer. Both Faye and Kimberley have played in different shows on the West End, like Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera. Kimberley had the honor to sing at Queen Elisabeth's 90th birthday celebration. The concert featured a good mix of songs from Chicago, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, Les Miserable, Chess, Mamma Mia, A Star is Born and The Greatest Showman. An impressive program considering that the concert were just about 80 minutes long. In addition to 3S Company, two very talented choirs, The SIS PTA Choir and The VRG Vocal Group, participated. The final number "A Million Dreams" with both choirs and 3S Company became very powerful and at the audience's request they got to sing it again.

The composition of songs was, as I said, very good. Faye Austin-Nordin made a wonderful emotional version of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserable. Erika Dittmer made a very gentle and fine tuned Where I Wanna Be from Chess. It is not often you hear it with a female musical artist as it is Anatolij song. It has a different meaning to the song when it was picked out of context and with a female voice. Unexpected, but well managed. Mary Poppins is a favorite and it is not as often as the beautiful Feed the Birds is included in a concert, so I enjoyed it a lot. Faye, Kimberley and Erika's voices complement and reinforce each other well and become a great unity when they sing together, They also give room for each other to sparkle and shine in their solo songs. Good arrangements with a personal touch here and there on the songs. Can highly recommend that you keep an eye out for the 3S Company!