For this production the songs of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are stripped of their high-energy content and reinvented as cabaret or musical theatre. It works surprisingly well.
The music has been rescored for a grand piano and string quartet, providing a sumptuous sound. There are five singers, two women and three men, who sing individually or together in different songs.
The songs are grouped together under various themes, but within an overall theme of relationships. The themes include rendezvous, suspicion, infidelity, individuality and confrontation. Love, hate, friendship and anger are demonstrated in a series of relationships, both straight and gay.
Many of the Pet Shop Boys songs are included in this performance, with scarcely a pause between them. Old favourites include Rent, What Have I Done To Deserve This, Left To My Own Devices, Domino Dancing and more. The music is played extremely well and the singers are good, although the two women singers have more powerful voices than the men. Enjoyable and worth seeing.
