Carrie Hope Fletcher - When The Curtain Falls

Carrie Hope Fletcher is an award winning musical theatre actress and author.  She also has her own YouTube channel.  This year Carrie won the What’s On Stage Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in The Addams Family.  Extremely talented Carrie’s debut album - When The Curtain Falls features twelve of her own personal favourite songs mostly from musicals.  This collection of songs is fresh, vibrant and definitely not a run of the mill album from a star of musical theatre.  Many artists from musical theatre release albums that are good but have the same old songs on them.  Carrie has plumped for less well-known songs with a few old favourites thrown in.  All of the songs on the album have been given a bit of a makeover and have a distinct jazz flavour about them.  Carrie’s vocals are strong, powerful and quite breath-taking to listen to.  She can really belt out a tune there is no doubt about that.  It is obvious that Carrie is passionate about the songs on this album.  She grew up listening to and obsessing over these songs.  The album starts with Journey To The Past from Anastasia.  This is an upbeat song with strong vocals and bold instrumentation.  This song encourages you to turn the volume up high and sing along at the top of your voice.  A rousing opening number that really sets the tone for the rest of the album.  What It Means To Be A Friend is from 13 The Musical.  A lovely song about friendship and what it means to be a friend.  Again, Carrie’s vocals really shine.  The third song on the album is the haunting ballad Burn from Hamilton.  This is such a powerful song.  Carrie’s vocals really lend themselves to this emotional number.  Burn is a passionate song that builds in emotion as it progresses.  This version of the song has been given a slight makeover.  The instrumentation has more of a laid back jazz feel, which allows Carrie’s vocals to take centre stage.  Definitely a highlight of the album because it highlights all of Carrie’s vocal range.  Times Are Hard For Dreamers is a beautiful song from Amelie.  Like Burn previously this song is emotive and this emotion is captured perfectly in Carrie’s heart-warming vocals.  This song really tugs are your heartstrings.  Carrie’s vocals are so tender and pure it is hard not to shed at least one tear listening to this lovely song.  I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables just had to be on this debut album from Carrie.  Having appeared in the musical herself there was no way that there wasn’t going to be a song from the show on the album.  I Dreamed A Dream is such a powerful, beautiful song.  It is also a very iconic song.  Carrie makes this song her own putting plenty of power into her vocals.  No One Else from Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 is quite a classical sounding song.  Carrie’s vocals really come into their own on this song.  You can feel the energy as she sings.  Summertime from Porgy & Bess is one of Carrie’s all time favourite songs.  Doesn’t everyone just love the laid-back melody of this classic song?  Carrie gives this song a dusting down and makes it sound fresh and new whilst retaining the quaintness of the original song.  Gorgeous vocals really bring this song to life.  Just Keep Moving The Line is from NBC’s Smash.  Carrie really puts her all into this dramatic, passionate song.  The energy Carrie creates with her vocals is quite stunning.  Somewhere That’s Green from Little Shop Of Horrors is another lovely choice for the album.  A great song that really suits Carrie’s vocal style.  Let It Go from Frozen just had to be on this album.  Carrie has the perfect voice for singing this powerful, epic song.  Again, this song has been slightly jazzed up giving it a slightly different feel to the original.  This is in no way a bad thing.  It sounds amazing.  Carrie has the vocals to really belt this song out and fans of Frozen will not be disappointed.  You Matter To Me from Waitress The Musical sees Carrie joined on vocals by her good friend Oliver Ormson.  This song is magical and a lovely duet.  This for me was another highlight of the album.  Definitely a song to play more than once.  Carrie and Oliver’s vocals really complement each other wonderfully.  The album ends all too soon with a song from Disney’s Hercules – I Won’t Say (I’m In Love).  This is a perfect song to end the album on because it is lively, powerful and quite uplifting.  Carrie’s debut album ticks all of the right boxes for fans of musicals and of Carrie herself.  This collection of songs is bold, bright and enjoyable to listen to.  There are plenty of gems on the album and Carrie gets plenty of opportunities to show off her incredible vocals and her wonderful vocal range.  To pick a favourite song on this album would be quite hard as they are all excellent and a joy to listen to.  Most definitely an album to play over and over and over again!!!