Judy Collins at Leicester Square Theatre

Judy Collins
Kenny White

Leicester Square Theatre, 22 April 2012

Last year I saw Judy Collins, then a sprightly 71 years old, for the first time and it was a wonderful experience: she was still in fine voice and full of wonderful stories and entertained her enthralled audience for two hours with selections of songs from throughout her career. It was really a magical concert and I was looking forward to seeing her again (especially that, given her age, I feel like the opportunities to catch her in the future will be much fewer). But this time was really a mixed bag and, although far from terrible, I felt that Judy's heart wasn't really in it for this show.

For starters, it was a much shorter affair. Maybe partly due to the fact she isn't getting any younger (I hate to keep alluding to her age but she is marvellous for still touring and sounding so good at 72) but this time Judy brought along a support act from New York with her, one of the artists signed to her Wildflower record label, a singer-songwriter called Kenny White. Very much in the Warren Zevon/Ben Folds mode of witty, story-led lyrics and piano-playing he was certainly entertaining. He picked up the guitar for two songs, revealing a folkier, more gentler side at one point, but his strength lay in playing the piano, and it was admittedly fun to watch, especially during a complicated instrumental section at the very end of the last song. 

But, while I didn't mind the unexpected support act, I was really there to see Judy and when she finally walked on stage she certainly looked magnificent, wearing black skin tight trousers, high heeled boots, a flowing waterfall cardigan and of course her marvellous, striking long white hair. She was epitome of elegance, a real glam gran, if you will. Starting off with a song from her new album Bohemian called Morocco, she still sounds great but she seemed less natural, as if she was trying her best to put on a show but not quite feeling it. This was particularly apparent, I felt, during the next song, Both Sides Now, her famous Joni Mitchell cover, which seemed rushed, as if she couldn't wait to get through it. The next part of the show was pretty much exactly the same, if a slightly edited version of last year, with her reminiscing on her childhood and getting started in the business complete with sung snippets of old folk songs that either influenced her or she had recorded. This was fine, it was nice to hear some of them again, except that it also included pretty much all the same jokes as before, and said with less conviction, which made it hard to laugh at them again.

It was when she finally left the script behind that things started looking up. She did tell exactly the same story about Stephen Stills again but at least this time it led into a gorgeous version of the famous Crosby, Stills & Nash song Helplessly Hoping. She also performed a lovely version of the song Pure Imagination, from the movie Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (which, amazingly, she said she had only heard for the first time a couple of years ago) and a rare outing for the title track of her album Running For My Life, which sounded great. She also treated us to a song she had recorded for a children's album, put together by Peter Yarrow, the timeless Somewhere Over The Rainbow, which her voice sounded perfect for. 

Unlike the show last year and because of the shorter running time, this time there was no interval and fewer songs with Judy (who trained to be a concert pianist as a child) on the piano, but aside from hearing the always wonderful My Father again, I was rather glad this time, as the few songs she did play seemed to drag. It all ended with the rather predictable Send In The Clowns, and where last time the crowd kept calling for more, this time the lights went up rather quickly.

So, all in all, not a horrible show, but one where Judy's heart was definitely not in it and you could tell. I'm glad I got to see her at her very best last year though, and it will be that performance that I'll always remember rather than this one.