Eva Cassidy was a singer with an amazingly beautiful, powerful voice whose life was tragically cut short when she died aged just 33 at a time when her career was just starting to take off. After her death, the few recordings that existed of her singing were discovered by a much wider audience, mostly due to air-play on  Radio 2 by Terry Wogan (So Wogan's life hasn't been entirely in vain). Her posthumous album reached number one and went quadruple platinum in the UK. She wasn't a songwriter but she reinterpreted and brought new meaning to jazz, blues, folk, gospel and pop songs.

Of course, the best advice for anyone wanting eternal fame is to die young and part of the attraction of Cassidy's music is that it seems to come from a spiritual other world which she perhaps now inhabits. There have been various attempts to portray her life on the stage. Here, she is played by Faye Tozer, once part of Steps. Were the audience there to see Cassidy or Tozer? It's hard to say, but I think mostly the former.

This is essentially a performance of her songs loosely threaded together with scenes from her life and the music is certainly the main part. There isn't much effort made with the set, which is mostly a series of projected backdrops, and it is probably best to gloss over the quality of acting. Although we are given a brief history of Cassidy's life, the scenes are sentimental and unrealistic. The first act covers Eva's youth and family life but we learn little about what made her such an incredible performer. The second act is slightly more interesting as we see Eva troubled by self-doubt and the early signs of her cancer appear. The final scene as she sings for the last time is clearly designed to get the audience blubbing and writer Brian Langtry achieved this with ease.

So, having dispensed with the drama, what of the music? Tozer lacks the power needed for many of the songs and this is particularly evident in Stormy Monday, though perhaps it is unreasonable to expect her to reproduce the performances of someone famous for having an angelic voice? She does make a decent stab at some of the better and best-known songs: Autumn Leaves, People Get Ready and Wonderful World were all worth a listen. Perhaps the most ill-judged is 'Tall Trees In Georgia'. Eva's mother would sing this to her and this is recreated by Barbara Drennan. However, her rendition is a big disappointment compared to the haunting beauty of the real Cassidy.

The main downside to dying young seems to be that people get to take liberties with your memory. I think of Eva Cassidy as a deep and soulful artist who would flinch at the cloying sentiment of this performance, but perhaps I am just attaching my own feelings to her. To many of her fans, she is the beautiful girl who sang 'Over The Rainbow' and died a tragic death and the whole theatre seemed to be delighted by Tozer's performance of this song. If you are part of the Radio 2 crowd, you may well find this a moving and enjoyable show but if you want to really experience the magic of Eva Cassidy's voice, try searching YouTube for her performance at Blues Alley.

Over The Rainbow played at the Royal Concert Hall on 23rd February 2008

 

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