Bravo Productions are very new to the concert promotion world, but they are a company on a mission. The mission is to make Tonbridge a cultural centre and, with their huge summer outdoor events and the more intimate Castle Cabaret events, they have started off very well indeed.
Brooke Wells started dancing when she was just two years old, first at a local dance school and then when she got a full scholarship to a performing arts college in Essex. After she graduated in 2016 she went straight on to work as a lead vocalist on board a luxury cruise liner where she performed in set shows and had her own ‘one women show’ which she devised herself.
Oliver Tourle didn’t have the same professional training. After leaving school in 2009, he went through a whole range of different jobs from retail to repairing digital cameras but continued to perform and work backstage at the Assembly Hall Theatre in Tunbridge Wells on many huge touring shows. Instead of the training, Oliver has a rare and wonderful gift – pure, natural talent.
Together, they take to the small stage set in the Chamber Room inside Tonbridge Castle for the first of the Castle Cabaret four-day programme of events, and launch into (well, what else could it be) an enthusiastic version of One Night Only from the musical Dreamgirls.
Now, the only problem with using the Chamber Room is that, although it is a wonderful room, acoustically it is far from the perfect setting and, with a capacity crowd filling the space, it takes a little while for the various sound levels to be set correctly.
Brooke and Ollie perform an eclectic mix of songs, with Brooke powering her way through classics like Natural Woman and modern showtunes like I’d Rather Be Me from Mean Girls while Ollie raises the roof with Adele’s When We Were Young and Waving Through a Window from the fantastic musical, Dear Evan Hansen.
Their on-stage partnership is a lot like a brother and sister and they emphasise this by enlisting their audience to assist with a couple of competitions, which gives them even more excuses to try for some one-upmanship, as if their supremely comic bickering about who knows what’s supposed to happen next isn’t enough.
All too soon their set comes to an end, with a rousing version of Proud Mary, encouraging many in the audience to take to their feet and dance, joining in with the deliberately haphazard choreography that is taking place on the stage.
Both Ollie and Brooke are very natural performers. Their vocal strength and dexterity suits their song choices perfectly and the audience leaves on a high. Thrilled to see such talented performers in such an intimate setting, and looking forward to the rest of the Castle Cabaret weekend, and the huge Bravo Productions Princess Picnic and A Night at the Musicals events that will take place out in the grounds of the castle in July.
**** Four Stars