Beyond the Barricade is, without doubt, the UK’s leading musical theatre concert. The concept was conceived by Andy Reiss and David Fawcett, who were both performing in the Manchester production of Les Miserables when they first met. Although the ladies they have sung with over the years have changed, these two guys have remained pivotal in the success of Beyond the Barricade. I took the opportunity to speak with them both before their recent show at St David’s Hall.
Alan Coulthard
What made you decide to start Beyond the Barricade?
David Fawcett
It came out of a request for a charity concert. We were in Les Mis at the time and we were just about to come to the end of our contracts. And a friend of mine, who was the event organiser for Mencap, said would we do be a fundraising concert, which we did. And it was a success. We were asked to do another one and another one. And then we thought we have a product here so we got a band together and then got involved with an agent and put Beyond the Barricade on a UK tour that ended up being a world tour!
Alan Coulthard
Can you give us some idea of the countries you have taken the show to over the years?
Andy Reiss
Denmark, Spain, Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. And on the cruise ships all over the world. All over the place, in fact.
Alan Coulthard
Why did you decide to limit the singers only to those who have appeared in Les Mis?
Andy Reiss
It wasn’t something that we set out to do. It was something that grew out of the fact that we started the show when we were still in the Manchester company of Les Miserables, so that we were doing these Mencap concerts at the same time. So there were Sunday night concerts and we just used a couple of the girls who were in Les Mis at the time. We hadn’t even got a name at that point, of course. This name ‘Beyond the Barricade’, when we came up with it, it tied us too closely to the Les Mis connection, and so we made a point of saying, listen, when you come see Beyond the Barricade you are coming to see core singers from the show itself. That became our little tagline and of course, years down the road, we’ve had female singers that have not done Les Mis, but predominantly we would always try and cast from the show purely because of the branding.
David Fawcett
A byproduct of that, of course, is the fact that there’s lots of musical theatre shows on the circuit, some saying they are from the ‘West End’ but the performers have never performed in the West End. So we thought we could give the public confidence by saying the people they will see tonight are all working professionals that have been in Les Miserables. So this gives an idea of the quality of the performer they’re coming to see.
Alan Coulthard
What makes your show different from the numerous other musical theatre shows around?
Andy Reiss
I’m not quite sure of the answer there. I think sometimes it’s as simple as the dynamic on stage is something that works. We never take ourselves that seriously for a start. And so when people come and see the show, we don’t intend to say to them, look how clever we are! So we are giving people a kind of a background of their own musical theatre history, so that when they come to Beyond the Barricade, they’re hearing Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Blood Brothers, but we also introduce them to some of the new songs as well, but the new songs are not predominant. In some shows on the circuit, you will sit through two hours of the show and really struggle to recognize any songs. That may be a valid thing to do but we just chose not to do that. And we have some fun and we’ve got a good rapport on stage. And I think people like to come and we like to appear is if we’re singing in your living room.
Alan Coulthard
Can you explain your history with the musical, in which productions did you appear, when and which characters did you play?
Andy Reiss
We were cast in the Manchester production in the early 90s, which was quite an important show, and it was quite a landmark production. Because nowadays everybody’s used to musical theatre. shows coming out of the West End and going on tour and being resident in other cities. This wasn’t done then. Les Mis was the first one to take up a residency in another city while it was still playing in the West End. So the Manchester company was assembled and we were both cast in that show together. David, at the time, was the understudy to Valjean. And I ended up playing Combeferre and Factory Foreman. Then our paths split. David went down to London to go into the West End production. And I stayed with the tour because my involvement with the show had changed. Because I’d always had a keen interest in looking at the offstage aspects, how it all works. And they must have seen that in me and I ended up being the resident director! So I ended up carrying on the tour. I went to Dublin and Edinburgh and then we joined up again in the West End.
Alan Coulthard
Who are your greatest musical influences?
David Fawcett
I enjoy all sorts of music. My interest in musical theatre came through doing amateur theatre. My interest in pop music, that came from when I was a lad, my mother worked at the local Opera House, and we had Cliff Richard there. We had all sorts of obscure stuff there too. When I was in school, I learned to play the trumpet so I started doing brass band as well. So I’ve got an eclectic taste in music really.
Alan Coulthard
Has the membership of Beyond the Barricade changed over the years?
Andy Reiss
Yes, the ladies have changed. Over the years, 33 ladies have passed through our hands. David and I have always been here.
David Fawcett
We tend to have the same two girls with us for a long while. And then something comes up such as a West End show and they go, so then we’ll have somebody else. And if someone’s ill we’ll bring someone else in.
Alan Coulthard
How does it feel reaching 21 years of Beyond the Barricade?
Andy Reiss
Fortunately, we’ve grown through the era of musical theatre. So the show started in the middle of which were probably the boom years of musical theatre, with Miss Saigon and others.
And then it went into the karaoke musicals, as I call them, such as We Will Rock You and Mamma Mia . And now we’re coming out the other end where we’re getting shows such as Hamilton, Come From Away and Wicked, although Wicked was a few years ago now. So even though our show is core Les Mis, of course, we’ve been able to travel through all of that era and the show has evolved with us.
Alan Coulthard
Do you want to explain about the other side of the business, the master classes and corporate work?
Andy Reiss
Well, my involvement with the master class in London was first of all with Cameron Mackintosh and the organisation. So we would take 60 odd people, put them in Pineapple Studios, and I would do a master class with them on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and they would go into the Palace Theatre in London to perform on the stage on Saturday morning. And it was like a dream come true for all these people. Eventually, that was all stopped. And I had people then contacting me and saying, ‘Well, if you’re not doing it in London, will you come out to our various societies and do it?’ That’s where that came from. As far as the corporate stuff is concerned, over the years people phoned us up and asked if we would come and do private parties or the cruise market or dinners.
Alan Coulthard
What did you think of the Les Mis movie in 2012?
Andy Reiss
I think it was a very bold move to try and put something which was so powerful, which is the immediacy of a performance when you’re standing on stage. This goes back to my masterclass work, you’re connecting to an audience and the history of Les Mis was all about the power. People went back to see it time and time and time again, because they were moved by the stories and they were affected so deeply by the actors on stage. How to put that on film is very, very difficult. And I thought some of it succeeded. But I would say of the success moments and the failure moments, the failure moments won.
David Fawcett
There was some spectacular filming I thought. And it was great for it to come alive. I just thought the casting was bizarre! I mean Russell Crowe!!
Andy Reiss
I cannot blame Russell Crowe. Somebody somewhere has to take responsibility for that.
Alan Coulthard
What do you think of casting non-singers or average singers in musical films?
Andy Reiss
I don’t agree with it at all. I can never see a reason for it. I mean, why? Why do it? I think there are many, many performers out there who’ve plied their trade over the years who could have done a much better job.
Review of the Concert
A few hours later, I was sitting excitedly waiting for the concert to start. I was not to be disappointed. Joining David and Andy on stage were Poppy Tierney and Jodie Beth Meyer and all had their own exceptional moments throughout the show. In addition to the 4 singers on stage, there was an excellent band which included Russ Kennedy (Bass/Tuba), Dave Williams (Drums/Percussion) and Daniel Goodger (keyboards). They were joined by Andy Reiss playing keyboards on occasion. The show prides itself on playing every note ‘live’ without backing tracks. And the fact that the band manages to replicate music which was often produced by a 16 piece orchestra is some achievement.
Beyond the Barricade uses a video screen to project the emblem of the musical they are performing and smoke and flashing lights, but otherwise the format is straightforward and consists of professionals singing to the best of their ability and musicians perfectly accompanying them.
The show started with the Queen classic, ‘The Show Must Go On’. Then followed one of the highspots for me, a glorious medley from Miss Saigon, including ‘The Heat Is On’, ‘Sun And Moon’, ‘I Still Believe’ and ‘Bui Doi’. Other musicals featured included Carousel, Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King. There was also a song from Come From Away, ‘Welcome to the Rock’. Come From Away seems to be a particular favourite of Andy and David so we can probably expect more songs from this musical next year. The Carousel segment included two astonishing solo performances. Jodie Beth Meyer sang ‘If I Loved You’ perfectly. And then we had Poppy Tierney’s beautiful version of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ in which she was joined at the end by the other three singers for an outstanding climax. And the Phantom segment included two stunning duets in ‘All I Ask Of You’ (Andy and Poppy) and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ (David and Poppy).
You can see by now the variety of the show, ranging from ‘golden era’ classics such as Saigon and Phantom back to a 1940s musical, Carousel, and moving forward to new musicals such as Come From Away. Interspersed amongst all this was a ‘silly-Disney’ medley of ‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah’, ‘Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo’, ‘Supercalifragilistic…’ and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This certainly lightened the mood.
The second half included songs from Blood Brothers, Chicago, Starlight Express, Jesus Christ Superstar and, of course, there was a stunning conclusion of songs from Les Miserables. Of the earlier songs, the high spot for me was a stunning rendition of ‘Tell Me It’s Not True’ from Blood Brothers. As for the conclusion, Andy’s excellent version of ‘Stars’ rather put Russell Crowe to shame! And my highlight of the whole night was a brilliant version of ‘One Day More’, with 4 voices managing to recreate perfectly the considerably higher number of vocalists who normally sing this song. This was an outstanding way to end the show and all those in the audience were very appreciative of the entertainment they had enjoyed.
David and Andy are men of many talents. In addition to his vocal prowess, David handled the presentation parts of the show with considerable professionalism and flair. And in addition to his vocals, Andy sometimes played the keyboard and sometimes acted as ‘conductor’ for the other 3 singers. This was most notable for ‘One Day More’ which is, of course, a piece of considerable vocal complexity. Both Andy and David should be congratulated on reaching the 21st anniversary of this show. If you have never seen Beyond the Barricade before, and you are unable to see them on their current tour, make a note to catch them next year. You won’t be disappointed!
