Stage

Shutdown show-stoppers: Broadway and West End stars sing in these six home videos

Stars from Hamilton, Mamma Mia! and more perform hit songs to raise Covid-19 morale

James Corden presented an isolated edition of his Late Late Show, with musical guests. File photograph: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for TBS

Chris Wiegand
Thu Apr 16 2020 - 12:30

‘Lift your head and look around’

Watch here
James Corden ends an isolated version of his Late Late Show, openly talking about his anxiety and sadness, then introduces a performance of You Will Be Found. Performed by Ben Platt and castmates from Dear Evan Hansen, the song is a call to let "that lonely feeling wash away" and reach out to others. "Much as we're apart," says Corden, "we are unified together."

‘The fact that you’re alive is a miracle’

Watch here
Lin-Manuel Miranda performs a stripped-down solo version of That Would Be Enough, his duet with Phillipa Soo from Hamilton, in which they reflect on the power of family. Miranda changes the line "come home at the end of the day" to "stay home" and ends with an appeal to support the Actors Fund charity.

‘All I want is to sing it out loud’

Watch here (and below)
On the 21st anniversary of Mamma Mia!, the show's original cast reunited online to perform Thank You for the Music, a joyous song of love for their "super-trouper" castmate Neal Wright, who played Pepper in the musical, after he was hospitalised with Covid-19.

‘Who will be strong and stand with me?’

Watch here
Seventy West End stars joined together from their homes to perform the rousing Les Misérables anthem about "the music of the people" who are longing to see the world beyond the barricade. Surrounded by bookshelves and cereal boxes – and even holding pets – they sing it as a mighty thank you to the UK's National Health Service.

READ MORE

‘We do what we must do’

Watch here
Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo reprise their duet Once Upon Another Time from Love Never Dies, this time performing remotely. This song in the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera includes the lines: "Once upon that other time / We did what we thought must be done / And now we have no choice / We do what we must do."

‘Today, today, I’m staying in all day’

Watch here
Elaine Paige gave musical-improv masters the Showstoppers just 24 hours to come up with a song about staying indoors, performed in the style of West Side Story. They rose to the challenge with this number about the lockdown reality of exhausting Netflix, tidying your drawers and frowning upon friends' barbecues. And is that Officer Krupke himself commanding us to not go out? – Guardian

LATEST STORIES