Rachel Williams | Stage Review
****
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
Fri 16 Mar
I always think it shows confidence to strut through an audience to open a show. You see the eyes and the smiles; hear the murmurings; spot those still on their phones. You’re declaring ‘I’m in this with you and have nothing to hide behind’. Rachel Williams did just this to kick off her one-woman show at the WMC on 16th March. Singing Born to Entertain from the off-Broadway musical, Ruthless, she sashayed her way through the tables set out cabaret style, to her waiting stage and her piano player, Michael.
This choice of song from an off-Broadway musical rather than a well-known number from a current West End show echoed a theme that ran throughout most of the performance, bringing to the Cardiff Bay crowd interesting and lesser-known tunes that weren’t always familiar and Rachel put her own particular mark on them.
The evening was a whistle-stop tour from her first glimpse of limelight in an Aberystwyth church, through ballet classes then stage school in London to the home of ‘tall girls dancing’ in Paris, embracing a spot of schmoozing in LA, a role in the West End production of ‘Cats’, before landing in her current home near Cardiff.
Rachel Williams loves being on stage. She wants to entertain. She sings, dances, chats and cajoles you to join her in her journey. A poignant moment came with the singing of, Les Chemins De L’Amour. It was sung following tales of her time as a Bluebell Girl at the Lido in Paris then her work as a Moulin Rouge showgirl, including a story of dancing with Strictly’s Craig Revel Horwood and reminiscences of frogs legs and chips. The song speaks of moving on, remembering, leaving a bit of you behind, which Rachel explained was how she felt looking back at the girl she once was and the woman she is now. I know Rachel personally and have some small insight in to just what this means to her.
Rachel has certainly lead an interesting life, telling tales of Sylvester Stallone, Michael Jackson’s choreographer, and Gillian Lynne and Trevor Nunn. She closed with songs from Cabaret and Chicago and beamed as the crowd stood to support her. She’s certainly travelled a fascinating and fun road from Aberystwyth and the capital’s crowd applauded this journey heartily.
words ALISON POWELL