Michael Crawford - In Concert

Some of you probably don't realise this but Michael Crawford is the bumbling Frank Spencer from the hilarious "Some Mothers do 'Ave 'em" TV series. There, I've said it. Why? Because I didn't realise this until a few years ago. I always thought of Michael Crawford as THE Phantom of the Opera and when realising this fact, I had a new respect for his acting and singing talents.

This latest offering from Warner Vision gives us Michael Crawford performing some of his greatest Broadway hits to a packed and cosy audience. A few weeks back when I first viewed this disc, I had been flicking through foxtel and spotted the same show. It was interesting to compare the difference between the cable presentation and the dvd presentation. Needless to say, I watched the show twice which isn't something I normally do with concert perfomances.

Exceptional, or is this just a knee-jerk reaction to the presentation on cable? Either way, the transfer is presented almost flawlessly.

As with all Warner Vision disc the compression is of the best possible quality achievable on this single layered disc. The most striking aspect of the transfer is the color saturation, a perfect blend of brightness and color produce a greata picture to look at, based around blue hues and bright white lights.

Black level and shadow detail are excellent and attribute to the dynamic nature of the color in the transfer giving a vibrant image indeed. The only downside is a slight lack of sharpness in some areas and the usual video noise attributed to the source but that doesn't take away from what is a one of the best to come out of Warner Vision.

Couple the crystal clear Crawford vocals and supporting orchestra with a linear pcm soundtrack and you've got sweet ear candy. This man knows how to sing and his sweet voice can often hide the dynamic vocal range that lies beneath.

Each song is belted out with pure ease and the dvd presentation produces such a clear signal which is such a great benefit for this format over the countless VHS copies I saw of this title in HMV. What more could you ask for?

Lyrics in your subtitles and a close captioned feature is what you get. A booklet/pamphlet is also provided but it only showcases other titles in the Warner Vision range.

A great presentation on dvd but the concert itself lacked content I felt. At 65 minutes, there's not much you can fit in and some of the songs are only half sung as he goes of onto a small spiel about how the song came about. Still, a must for all Crawford fans as I know there are many of you out there. Don't worry, he sings his greatest songs in FULL so you won't be short changed there.