Moonshadow – Yusuf Islam at the O2 Dublin
Cat Stevens, Yusuf on tour and Moonshadow
Cat Steven is currently engaged on a concert tour at the same time as his new musical, Moonshadow is being prepared for a possible West End run.
But according to the Times Online review, all is not going too well.
The bad vibes began when Islam paused the performance for a 40-minute preview of his forthcoming musical, Moonshadow. A cast led by the former Hear’say singer Noel Sullivan trooped on to act, dance and deliver a mix of new material as well as the Cat Stevens classics Father and Son and Wild World. By the latter, streams of people were walking out, dismayed at Islam for handing over his hits. In truth, the musical segment lasted far too long and was confusingly introduced. In the West End of London, where it is expected to open next year, Moonshadow could go down a storm. In front of an audience who had come to hear Islam trawl his back catalogue, it was never going to work.
However, the bulk of the audience remained for a final segment of the show that began on shaky ground — they groaned as Islam introduced more new songs and pulled a plucky Sullivan back on to duet — but ended on a high with a lengthy, rocky rendition of Peace Train. (read more)
Oh dear, at first sight that wouldn’t seem to bode well for the musical. The people who want to be nostalgic about the songs may not be the right audience for the new show yet nostalgia would seem to be its main appeal. On the other hand there’s a lot of great material in that back catalogue and still some time left to turn it into a popular musical with wider appeal than just the hard core Cat Stevens fans who would only ever want to hear himself singing his old hits.
The Telegraph has a short interview which examines his life journey Yusuf Islam: coming out of the Moonshadows
..he continues to attract new audiences – his singing voice, at least, crosses generations and he recently won new fans when a track of his was used in the television show Skins.
and a review of the same concert the Times correspondent went to
Gosh, what a show. There was a standing ovation, disgruntled walk outs, some unfeasibly beautiful music, some “we are bored” slow hand clapping plus a surprise appearance by Ronan Keating. Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, must be feeling very confused this morning.
I was at the show on Sunday in Dublin and am so ashamed how some people conducted themselves. The booing started early on and not during the musical part. This booing was coming from adults in their 40/50’s.
Yusuf did inform us of a “surprise” in store and it had been advertised all over the newspapers that it was Moonshadow, the musical. From talking to other people at the show in my opinion I believe this was staged/ a conspiracy to give Yusuf bad press and it succeeded. Never in my life have I experienced anything like it to the extent that I was ill all day yesterday. I felt threatened when that booing, bile language started. This was no ordinary disgruntled audience, this was organised and staged.
I would now like to apologize to Yusuf for the bad conduct of the Irish. I do intend writing also to the O2 and the promoters of the show to complain of their lack of security and general well being of the audience. It should have been nipped in the bud at the first sign of trouble.
Yours sincerely.
Colette Cumbers
Thanks ever so much for your report Colette, it’s great to hear from somebody who was really there at the Yusuf concert in Dublin. It’s really hard to get an accurate idea of what the discontent was all about over in Ireland on Sunday. I can’t believe that genuine fans would pay good money to buy tickets with the intention of spoiling the show. It seems the “Moonshadow” part of the show had been advertised in advance so you wouldn’t expect complaints simply against the fact that this wasn’t a straight forward Cat Stevens concert. Were there any long delays or big problems getting the musical part onto the stage which might have caused the audience to lose patience perhaps? I’m trying to avoid adding to the conspiracy theory here if at all possible. “Adults in their 40/50s” can be hard to please sometimes
Deary me, conspiracy theories? I was at the concert. The first 50 minutes were great and were well received by everyone. ‘Where do The Children Play’ was almost worth the entrance fee alone. After the 20 minute interval Yusuf played one track then exited the stage with no obvious explanation other than we were in for a surprise. Then the musical production started. It’s all a matter of taste, but really I thought it was dire and tedious. It wasn’t what I wanted to see and there was no obvious end to it so I left. In fact it lasted 50 minutes or so with no communication about when Yusuf would return, if at all. The audience became restless and, yes, behaved badly. Really there’s no mystery, just bad planning and communication. A terrible shame for such a promising gig and a legendary guy. It’s unusual for a performer to lose the connection with an audience as badly as this in Dublin. I’ve not seen anything like it in 25 years. I’d say the next few concerts will be better managed.