Sorry it took so long... without farther ado... here is Part 2 of my review... (I just realized I totally rhymed... lol) Part 3 ~ The M&G will be coming momentarily, complete with a few selected pics...
INTERMISSION
First of all, I have to throw out there that Act 1 went by way too fast!!!!!!! Before I knew it, the lights were coming up, and it was time for intermission. I was meeting Laura during intermission, and I also needed to buy a shirt and stop at the restroom, since I wouldn’t have time after the show and before the M&G. Apparently, I got back to my seat literally just seconds before the show started again… I didn’t realize I was standing in line that long to get my shirt… lol. I did meet up with Destiny and Sarah right before the 2nd Act, to grab the things they wanted signed in the M&G.
And now, onto Act 2…
Amazing Grace: First things first… Huge huge thank you to Sarah for giving me some Kleenex before the show… Definitely needed it during this song. As usual, Anthony starts this song from the back of the theatre, and makes his way towards the front. It was kind of amusing to watch the people around me (who have obviously never been to a CW show before) because they were so confused as to where the sound of the bagpipes was coming from.
One thing I will say for this song… I miss Lisa Kelly’s harmonies with the other 2 girls. Susan did do an absolutely phenomenal job though, and she put so much emotion into her parts and she really is a fantastic addition to Celtic Woman!! And I will say this once again, as I have in my other reviews… If this song doesn’t make you cry… I’m confuzzled… It’s just so beautiful and emotional. Oh, and another fun part for me… More nods and smiles of recognition.
The song ended by everyone leaving the stage except the female choir. Chloe, Lisa and Susan were the first to leave, then the male choir. Mairead, Andrea and Kate stayed out there though… leading up to the next song…
A Spaceman Came Traveling: I have LOVED this song since it came out in SFTH. Then, when I saw it on the DVD, I fell in love with it even more. I just love watching Lil’ Lambe and she never disappoints. She blew the ceiling off with this song, and even the choir seemed to be having a good time. Lil’ Lambe really does love to play with her gown too…
Her voice just gets more gorgeous every time I see/hear her live too.
Walking the Night/Give Me Your Hand: Chloe and Lisa’s voices together during Walking the Night…
They just give you goosebumps and of course, being the emotional person I am, tears came to my eyes as well. One thing I really liked about these 2 songs was that they put them together like they were in SFTH. I wasn’t really a fan of the way they split them up on the DVD. Once Walking the Night was over and Chloe and Lisa have left the stage, Tommy does his interlude on the pipes. As his interlude is ending, I look away from him towards the middle of the stage looking for Susan, who is swaying and smiling and as soon as she opens her mouth to begin Give Me Your Hand (Or I guess it’s called The World Falls Away now…), I break into a huge smile!! I really started warming up to Susan during the 2nd act, and she really does to a phenomenal job with this song as well. Chloe enters a little later and they do their duet and they both look sooooo happy!!!!!! You can tell Chloe is so happy that Susan is a part of the show now.
Lil’ Lambe comes back on towards the end, and the 3 girls finish the song to thunderous applause. This is my all-time favorite Celtic Woman song, and it gets better every time I see it live.
The Water Is Wide: This is where I officially fall in love with Susan! I had heard wonderful things about her interpretation of this song, and I was in awe as soon as the song started. Now, I love Lisa Kelly with all my heart… She has been and will always be my favorite Celtic Woman… but… she has some fierce competition on The Water Is Wide from Susan. She just gave that song everything she had and left me in awe and loving her version more than Lisa’s (Sorry Lisa…
) And I am a MEGA Lisa Kelly fan!! I turned to Ncoua after this song and whispered, “Okay, I am officially in love with Susan! She is incredible!!” I have always loved this song as well, and I’ve heard it performed by so many of the past and present Celtic Women, such as Orla, Chloe, Hayley, Lisa Kelly and now Susan. And out of those 5, I would have to say, Susan’s version is by far my favorite. I don’t know what it was about this song, but I fell for her and instantly fell in love. I still do miss Lisa terribly and can’t wait until she comes back, but I have a newfound respect and love for Susan after seeing her perform this song live.
Ray then came down from his “perch” up by the percussion instruments and had a lot of fun with the audience. I shouted out “I love you Ray!!” a few times, because I do… he is amazing!!!!!!! He seemed to be having a lot of fun and he really got the audience going as well. I didn’t want him to leave… I was so disappointed when he was done… I wanted him to stay longer…
Green Grow The Rushes Oh: Chloe comes on and talks for a little while again… I can’t remember exactly what she said, but man does she love to talk!! She taught us the words to the chorus and said “I’m going to sing it for you now, and if you know the words, feel free to sing along with me.” She sang the chorus, and the entire front row was singing with her!! She smiled at us and looked really proud. She looked at us and was like “Well, some of you have done your homework.” She then looked at the rest of the audience and said, “Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that some of you have done your homework. The bad news is that the rest of you have a lot of work to do.” She sang through it again, then she looked back at the lighting guy and asked him to turn on the audience lights. She then looked at the audience and said “Yes, the rest of you in the back have some work to do… You thought you could get away with it and let the front row handle all of it, didn’t you?” She pointed at a few people who she saw weren’t singing, then she said “Well, you sound a lot better. I’m going to bring Lisa out here to help you out.” She then turned behind her and called out “Lisa, are you back there?” We hear “Yes! I’m coming!” Then I see Lil’ Lambe bound out onto the stage. Chloe brings out the choir, and Lil’ Lambe and Chloe put their everything into this song and do such an amazing job with it. One cute thing Chloe did during this song… The male choir was on the right side of the stage and the female choir was on the left side. Towards the end of the song, Chloe glances over at the girls, and reaches out her hand to Mairead Maguire. They hold hands for a long moment and smile at each other, which, for some reason caused me to cry.
Tribute to Broadway: Susan then comes out and gets her first chance to chat with us. She mentions how this is her very first tour ever with Celtic Woman and how she is so honored to be a part of the show, which gets thunderous applause. We all love her and love that she is part of the show too.
Then she goes on to talk a little bit about the show and some of the songs that they’ve done so far. Then she says “These next few songs are incredibly special to me. Having grown up in musical theatre, these next 2 songs are very near and dear to my heart. This is our very own Tribute to Broadway.” Around this time is when she seems to let go and just give it her all. She seems a lot more comfortable singing I Dreamed A Dream… Probably because it’s Broadway, which is what she’s familiar with. But she just belts it out and doesn’t hold anything back. She puts emotion and her heart into the song, with an incredible result! Chloe joins her halfway through the song, and the one thing I loved about the DVD was the Chloe/Lisa Kelly harmony during the “shaaaaaaame” part, so I was really curious to hear the Chloe/Susan harmony. My gosh! It was just perfect! Absolutely flawless. Lil’ Lambe appears towards the end of I Dreamed A Dream and launches right into The Circle Of Life. She brings the choir out with her, and the choreography is updated a little from the DVD, but Lil’ Lambe’s amazingness is exactly the same, if not better. She really does an amazing job with this song!
I did notice in the DVD that when Lisa and Chloe joined Lil’ Lambe singing the chorus, Lisa’s voice stood out above all the others (as she does with a lot of songs:)). The interesting thing about Susan was that her voice does the exact same thing! Maybe it was just me and because Susan was right in front of me, but Susan has a powerful voice as well. Not to mention an absolutely gorgeous/flawless voice.
Ave Maria: As soon as the choir came out with their candles and started singing the intro to Ave Maria, I reached for my Kleenex, knowing I would be needing it any second… which of course, I did. If you thought Chloe was amazing on this song on the CD or DVD… just wait until you see it live!! The choir actually adds a really nice background on this song as well. I know Chloe sang this during the Symphony tour as well, and it was just as stunning, but the choir’s backup really gives it that extra edge. I honestly have no words other than what I have just wrote to describe this… just…
Once the song was over, she went into a little curtsey and got THE LONGEST applause of the show!!!!!!!! (Really, is it any surprise though?
) Of course, she got a standing O from me, as well as quite a few others. One cute thing… if any of you saw SFTH live when it was touring, if you remember Chloe after When You Believe, how she kinda collapsed on the floor at the end with a “whoo…”, she did kinda the same thing here… you can tell she gave 200% on this song, and it took a lot out of her. This was also one of the times where I was blowing her a million kisses. She noticed, and blew a few of them right back adding a smile and a wink of her own!! Of course, I addressed this in the M&G as well, thanking her for her love from the stage, and she gave the thanks right back to me, thanking me for my enthusiasm from the front row.
You’ll Never Walk Alone: I recognized the intro to this song and reached for the Kleenex again. This song has special meaning to me (especially after what the fabulous Ms. Agnew wrote in my program) and I had a hard time concentrating on the girls, since I was bawling so hard. So instead, I focused on the choir, which helped a little, but this is one of those songs that speaks to my heart, and I got some direct looks from Chloe, and I know she was trying to convey to me that she will always be there with me and I’ll never be alone with everything I’m going through with my eating disorder and my depression and anxiety right now. Thank you again Chloe for all your love and understanding. <3.
Mna Na Eireann: Mairead walks out and introduces this song and translates it to mean Women of Ireland. She really goes to town on this song. The tap dancer is back and they have a little “duel” as well at one point in the song. Again, this is one of the many reasons I love being so close to the stage… Mairead’s facial expressions!!
The Parting Glass: And again, my memory of the actual show isn’t as good as I would like it to be, but I wanna say it’s our Lil’ Lambe who comes out to introduce this song. She says, “With this last song, we would like to say goodnight and joy be to you all.” Then she says something in Irish I believe it was, which I didn’t quite catch. The choir is back for this song, which of course always gets a huge smile from me. I was having mixed emotions at this point. On the one hand, I was incredibly disappointed that the show was over… but on the other hand, I still had my M&G to look forward to. I actually turned to Ncoua after Lil’ Lambe introduced the song and was like, “No, not yet, not yet…” They blew the roof off with this song, and I got soooooooo many personalized looks from Chloe which just increased my belief that she was trying to send me some kind of message that everything was going to be okay. I’ll get to this more in the M&G section of my review, but I think she knew that I needed my angel to hold me (literally) at least for a little bit, which is why she was in my M&G. But more on that later. Another standing O from me after this song as the girls take their bows and leave the stage. The choir, however stays onstage, and I saw Mairead Maguire move over a little bit… then Tommy I think said something to her, cause he tapped her and whispered something to her.
Mo Ghile Mear reprise: The music starts and the choir starts dancing. (side note: the choir was absolutely phenomenal!! I don’t know if it was because I was so close to the stage and could hear their individual voices or what, but they provided such incredible back up for the girls. And of course, I was super happy that Mairead Maguire was back. She seems to really enjoy being a part of these shows.
). Anyway, the girls come back out and do their bows during the song. I had whispered to Ncoua that I was going to save my standing O for Chloe, but when Lil’ Lambe came out, I just had to stand… Something about her always puts me in a good mood, and I just adore her.
Chloe thanked us again for being an amazing audience and she said she was so glad we had a good time. Then she said they wanted to send us off dancing and clapping and they launched into their “At The Ceili” bit. This was one of those times when Mairead Maguire was right in front of me, and I had the pleasure of hearing her voice apart from just being a part of the choir, I actually heard her individual voice, and I have to say, she has the.most.gorgeous. voice!!
Then the girls leave, and the show is over… But the evening is not quite over for me yet…
The M&G section of my review will be up momentarily…
I apologize for not getting the M&G part up as soon as I would have liked. It will be up sometime tomorrow... I'm just trying to figure out how to explain it. Especially since a lot of the interaction with Chloe was incredibly personal...
Here's a little picture teaser of the M&G....
My FAVORITE pic from that night...
And of course...
