Stowmarket-born Kerry Ellis, having trained at Laine Theatre Arts, landed the role of Meat in the original 2002 London cast of We Will Rock You and, since then, has played leading roles in West End productions of Les Misérables, Evita, Wicked, Oliver! and Cats as well as in several regional tours. More recently, she has recorded four solo albums, the most recent being Acoustic by Candlelight in 2013. In a live performance at Cadogan Hall, she comes across as having a true rapport with her audience and enjoying what she does, which is all to the good as she is about to start a two-month tour of the United Kingdom with her own show.
Showcasing over twenty well-known songs, her Cadogan Hall evening clearly delighted her fans. The most successful numbers were those that came from shows in which she had actually sung them, such as I Dreamed a Dream (Les Misérables) and Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina (Evita), as not only did they completely suit her style of singing, but she was also able to put more individuality into them. Some of the others were almost too well-known to do anything with except treat them as “cover” versions. I particularly enjoyed the selection of songs from various James Bond films of the past, and it was a shame that the conductor, Anthony Brown, decided to slice up the selection, encouraging applause between the sections, rather than letting it run without a break.
Second half highlights included Coldplay’s “Fix You” whilst Kerry also introduced two other singers, Paige Harris and Jemma Brown, during the course of the evening.
Advertised as a “Symphony Orchestra” on the front cover of the programme and as “fifty-piece” on page three, the Fulltone Orchestra actually had forty-four members! Based in Devizes in the south-west of England and founded in 2017, it is a highly competent group of players who seem to specialise in almost everything from Holst’s The Planets to Enya! Especially impressive were the harpist, Catriona Bourne and keyboard player, Claire Alsop. For some reason, the orchestra was amplified, which was totally unnecessary in a hall the size of Cadogan, which made it sound as if it was playing in a huge echo chamber, detail being blurry; pieces such as Bernstein’s Mambo! just sounded a muddle! In addition, the brass especially was amplified so that very often it totally swamped the sound of the strings, who might just as well not have been there! The orchestral arrangements, which I assume were mostly by the conductor, were often very effective, and would have been even more so had the amplification allowed them to be heard as they were intended!
An interesting evening, not least because of Kerry Ellis, whom I’d like to hear more about. Tickets for her solo tour, which starts in Mansfield, then moves to Epsom, are available from kerryellis.com.
Review by John Groves
On Monday 1 September, the prestigious Cadogan Hall came alive with the sound of some of the most iconic and beloved music ever written for stage and screen. From cinematic masterpieces to Broadway blockbusters and West End wonders, this promised to be a night of spectacular sound and spellbinding performance.
KERRY ELLIS AND THE FULLTONE ORCHESTRA
Cadogan Hall
1 September 2025
