Surprisingly, even though I’m the biggest ballad fan ever, Whitney Houston was never really my cup of tea, however, I was always a fan of The Bodyguard (and most of her songs to be fair) so when I heard they had made a musical of it I was desperate to see it. Unfortunately for one reason or another I never got to see in on the West End. That just meant that when I heard it was going to tour it was a must.
As it turns out, it made a brilliant Christmas present for two of my friends Kim & Michelle. In the West End both Beverly Knight and Alexandra Burke played the part of Rachel (Whitney Houston’s character) then Burke was announced to be heading out on tour and I’m not particularly a fan of either of them, however, for some reason Burke was not appearing during the Sunderland dates, I later found out it was going to be played by Zoe Birkett; who placed third in Pop Idol the year that Will Young won, I was torn because I loved her on Pop Idol but obviously haven’t heard her sing for a long time so I was unsure.

My uncertainty was definitely not required, she blew my socks off. Birkett played the diva down to a tea whilst also revealing a softer side during songs such as All The Man That I Need.
Possibly the best song in the show was Run To You, a duet by Rachel and her sister Nicky, which; tonight at least, was absolutely flawless. Rachel John who played Nicky was arguably the better singer as she had such an effortless ability, and a truly beautiful head voice.

As well as featuring some script directly from the film there was some inflictions of comedy – my favourite of which was the drunken karaoke singers belting out Where Do Broken Hearts Go, I’m pretty sure all girls can relate.

Stuart Reid also played a brilliant sturdy portrayal of Frank ‘The Bodyguard’ even singing an intriguing version of I Will Always Love You – I do really wish he had sang in the finale though!

The choreography throughout was definitely on point too, the dancers were all brilliant, I go green with envy. I’m Every Woman really gave them a chance to shine individually but the finale was my favourite, especially the male dancers at the start.
It generally takes a lot to impress me with a show, I have my favourites and I’m quite happy with them, but I can honestly say that The Bodyguard is firmly in my top 5 musicals now it’s just a shame that Zoe Birkett isn’t going to be playing the lead through the whole tour.