Tell Me on a Sunday

In 1979, singer Marti Webb starred as a young, unlucky-in-love British lass lost in America in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black’s song cycle ‘Tell Me on a Sunday’.

Thirty-five years and over half her life later, and Webb’s reprising the role that made her a household name. It’s nothing if not ambitious: with the best will in the world, the 69-year-old Webb is an awkward fit for a young woman sending naive letters home to her mum and talking about wanting to get married and have kids.
 
It’s also brave because Lloyd Webber’s complex melodies hit very high notes, hefty low notes and almost every other note inbetween.  Webb’s been singing throughout her career and her voice just about holds up to scrutiny, with brilliant hit single ‘Take That Look Off Your Face’ almost as strong as it was the first time.

It’s a treat too, to hear Lloyd Webber and Black’s songs – in the main surprising, intelligent, funny and emotional – sung by someone with such experience. The satirical ‘Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad’, which pokes fun at Hollywood preoccupations, is crisp and cheeky, while ‘Tell Me On a Sunday’ – the much-loved title track – still provokes goosebumps.

For all her authority, however, there are distracting wobbles of insecurity in Webb’s voice and performance. The restrictive staging doesn’t help, as she either stands facing front or sitting awkwardly on random white furniture plonked in three different parts of the stage. She feels caught between the impetus to act the part and the need to sing the songs well.

There are a few (a very few) moments where we almost believe she’s a frolicking youngster but in the main this is really just a concert performance. Still, Don Black, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Marti Webb all in one evening – that’s not to be sniffed at.