It’s Christmas! After the year we’ve had, it cannot come soon enough, and although it probably won’t be a Christmas as we’ve been used to, there are still some things that remain the same, and also some new things to keep us busy. One of these is the Studio Cast Recording of a new Christmas musical from Sim-G Productions - Gabriel.

With music and lyrics by Andrew Fisher and book by Andrew Fisher and Nick Stimson, this new two-act Christmas musical tells the Nativity story from the point of view of an ambitious angel Gabriel.

Gabriel is given the job of relaying messages from Heaven to Earth as they arrive, and in this task sees his chance to earn his much longed for promotion to the status of archangel. But Gabriel has no idea of what is actually coming, and, indeed, has his own set of expectations about how God ought to do it. Roman Palaces, luxury, raised by philosophers, every possible privilege – that must be the plan, right?

Gabriel is a fun, upbeat, and inspiring family musical, recorded at Baker Street Studios, the 26 track studio cast recording stars Daniel Boys as Gabriel, alongside James Gillan, Joel Montague, Kit Orton, Stuart Matthew Price, Lauren Samuels, Ben Stock, Stephen Weller, and multi Olivier award-winner David Bedella as King Herod, and comes complete with a full colour booklet, cast photographs, and synopsis.

I’ve enjoyed (and reviewed) previous Andrew Fisher works released by SimG (The Little Fox, and Girl In A Crisis) so was looking forward to listening to this festive treat.

This really is a fun recording, and gives a new slant on the Nativity story. For me, it falls someway between a full musical and an accessible score that I could see being performed all over the country. There are some great performances on the recording - Daniel Boys is always dependable and comes across great here as Gabriel, as does Stuart Matthew Price as Joseph. James Gillan’s Roman Governor is worth getting the recording for on it’s own, and I also enjoyed the mothers on the recording - some great vocal quality.

The score varies from gospel, to country and more pop-orientated numbers, through some more traditional ’theatre-esque’ numbers. There’s great humour in the score, and I had a good giggle to ‘I Spy’ - very well written. My favourite number is without doubt ‘One Day’ - very powerful sound, and great vocals from the company, lead by Boys.

A great listen for this time of the year - and a great tonic at the moment!

8

Ian Gude