United Kingdom The Overtones’s Jukebox IDOLS: The Overtones with dancers Nadiya Bychkova, Louis Smith, Mia Bowers, Kiera Brunton, James Cutler and India Taylor. Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, 13.6.2026. (JPr)
I am more used to going to Southend-on-Sea’s Cliffs Pavilion for musicals based on films I have never seen and now I was back for what the publicity called ‘a non-stop whirlwind of the greatest hits from the ‘50s and ‘60s’ biggest music icons, celebrating era-defining music from the likes of Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Motown, amongst many other, that poured from jukeboxes around the globe to create the unforgettable soundtrack of a generation’, featuring ‘The UK’s leading platinum-selling vocal harmony group The Overtones’ who – and now to my regret – I had never heard of before. The group still has three of the original four members – Darren Everest, Mike Crawford and Mike Franks – there when they were discovered, as legend has it, whilst painting a shop in Oxford Street over 15 years ago. Jay James who joined in 2019 now completes the quartet.
If I suggest Gareth Walker’s direction and choreography for Jukebox IDOLS is relentless I mean that in a good way and within a few minutes – with the judicious additional use of backing tracks – we were introduced to the remarkable vocal harmonies of The Overtones, as well as through some high-energy jiving and rock and roll dancing to the often effortless elegance of Nadiya Bychova (formerly of Strictly Come Dancing); Olympian and 2012 Strictly-winner Louis Smith (who naturally included some of his signature gymnastic moves); and the exceptional verbality of the four other dancers, Mia Bowers, Kiera Brunton (also responsible for some additional choreography), James Cutler and India Taylor; with everyone looking good in some colourful and occasionally exceptionally sparkly costumes. A simple set – suggesting a 1950s-style jukebox diner – had a large LED screen to the rear that often featured a huge jukebox but also had suitable images for the various sections of Jukebox IDOLS that included, amongst much else, ‘Battle of the Boy Bands’ (Beach Boys and The Beatles), ‘Elvis & Tina’ (though ‘Proud Mary’ really needed an onstage powerhouse performance from a female singer), ‘Jersey Boys’, ‘Idols of Disco’, ‘Modern Women’ (Nadiya’s more reflective and up-to-date segment which included ‘Where is My Husband!’) and the ‘Motown Finale’.
Within a few minutes of the show starting we had been reminded of ‘Do You Love Me (J
Featured Image: The Overtones and the rest of the cast of Jukebox IDOLS © Ieuan Bradfield
Nadiya Bychkova returns to the Cliffs Pavilion on 21 July in Nikita Kuzmin’s Supernova and for more details click here.