Photo and © Tina Schuster
On Saturday morning we took off from the airport towards the northern latitudes. Luleå, more specifically, to listen to I Love Musicals in Coop Arena; Peter Jöback’s critically acclaimed tour. I, Tina, Kristina and Rachel traveled together. But truth be told it wasn’t Peter himself who was the main attraction for us this time, but one of his guest artists; Helen, who participated in the first two concerts on the tour. The premiere had taken place the night before in Örnsköldsvik, but we had unfortunately no chance to go there.
We took the shuttle bus into the center of Luleå, and after a short walk we could check into our hotel, which was small but pleasant and with helpful staff. In the afternoon we went shopping, both for ourselves and gifts for the evening, and after a visit to an Asian restaurant it was time for us to take the bus to the arena, a few kilometers away. Too late we realized that we should have got off the bus one stop earlier than we did. The last short stretch the bus snailed on its way in the traffic jam to the arena, while the minutes ticked away. Luckily we managed to arrive on time!
Tina and I made a futile attempt to pick up her photo pass, but even though we asked in 5-6 different places, no one knew where it was. At last we gave up. Fortunately, the guards were not on the ball this evening, so everything passed off without mishap. Rachel and Kristina had their seats a bit up in the stands, but during the break, they could move down to us in the stalls as there surprisingly were plenty of vacancies in the arena. But what a show we got!
The show was diverse and professional performed, ranging from the introductory movie from something that strongly resembled an AA meeting, to the lights and decor in the numbers that passed in review during the evening. Peter himself was of course at the center, but also the guest artists got generous space. Helen made a both striking and evocative entrance in Du måste finnas, estimated immensely by the audience!
The duet One Hand, One Heart from West Side Story was also really nice, and ended in a romantic kiss. In the second act Helen sang Norma Desmond’s (Sunset Boulevard) part with great authority, which she also showed us in Climb Every Mountain that became a grand finsh – although she is much too young to portray the Mother Abbess from Sound Of Music.
But most happy I was when Helen, along with the other soloists, took part in One Day More from Les Miserables, which is among my absolute favorites in the musical genre!
Norm Lewis greatly impressed on me with his deep powerful voice, that I could have listend to a lot more during the evening! The festive duet Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better from Annie Get Your Gun, with Norm and Peter, was performed very well. Peter in Guldet blev till sand I would also point out as one of the highlights, as well as the newly written song Annars vore jag inte jag from the musical Livet är en schlager, which will be set up at Cirkus next autumn.
The two other female soloists, Ma-Anne Dionisio and Scarlett Strallen, had their best numbers respectively in the songs from Wicked and Cabaret, and Phantom Of The Opera and Mary Poppins.
Going through all the costume changes for the soloists is hardly possible, you may instead take a look in the photo gallery, as you will find most of the creations there. Helen wore several different dresses during the evening, however none of them completely new.
Maybe the concert felt a bit long a few times, when unfamiliar musical songs were performed, 3-4 songs could have been removed from the program without any loss. But overall it was a well-composed and enjoyable evening!
When all the programme had promised had been performed, the concert abruptly ended and the lights were turned on. Then we spent a while in the signing queue, where you could buy the recently released CD of the same name as the tour, and get it signed by Peter, Norm, Scarlett and Ma-Anne. It was close to midnight when we left the arena, and at that time local communications are not the best in Luleå, so we shared a cab back to the hotel.
The next morning it was time to return home, after a short but very memorable Luleå visit!