Review of Bernadette Peters: In Concert

Introduction

Broadway Diva and two-time Tony Award-winner Bernadette Peters entertains an audience at the Royal Festival Hall with a selection of her greatest hits in this 1998 concert. For those of you unfamiliar with the lady in question, Bernadette Peters is probably best known to UK audiences for her performances in Clint Eastwood`s "Pink Cadillac" and the Hollywood version of "Pennies From Heaven" with Steve Martin. These form only a tiny part of a career on stage and screen that started at the age of three-and-a-half.

Most of the songs presented are Stephen Sondheim - We`re In The Money, Broadway Baby, No One Is Alone, Sooner Or Later, Unexpected Song, Faithless Love, Time Heals Everything, Raining In My Heart, Some People, Johanna, So Much Happiness, Hello Little Girl, Any Moment, Later, You Could Drive A Person Crazy, Not A Day Goes By, Being Alive, With So Little To Be Sure Of, Children Will Listen, Move On, I`ll Be Seeing You, My Romance and The Way You Look Tonight.

The ninety-one minute concert is a must-have for Bernadette Peters fans and a pleasant evening`s entertainment for those of us who hanker after good old-fashioned musical entertainment that`s been a four-letter word to TV planners since the 1980`s. The singer keeps the pace of the show going with only the minimum of repartee attempted between numbers. An early highlight of the concert is Ms Peters` rendition of "We`re In The Money", reprised in Pig Latin.

Video

Being a concert recording, there are no great shakes here. Stage Lighting does not a great picture make. The transfer has been made from transmission-standard videotape, so the image is as good as any variety-style show one might see today (if anyone made them).

Audio

Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, the sound gives an excellent spread in plain vanilla Stereo as well as Pro Logic, and the vocals and orchestra are pleasingly full.

Features

No surprise here - the disk is broken down into chapters relating to the songs performed. There is a short text biography and career credits list and a photo gallery. All of the material is backed by Photoshop-style montages of the star. There are, of course, no subtitles.

Conclusion

It would be remiss of me to say this is a disk for fans only. The experience of listening to the disk is that it`s light entertainment in the old-fashioned sense. Good music and a striking singer, but not an experience in the Biblical sense. Perhaps you should rent it first.