The Bodyguard
- Linda Isted
- 5 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Lawrence Kasdan & Alexander Dinelaris, based on the Warner Bros film
Michael Harrison, David Ian for Crossroads Live
Palace Theatre, Manchester
January 19-31, 2026; 2 hrs 20 mins
(also at Lyceum, Sheffield, February 10-14; Sunderland Empire, April 27-May 2; Venue Cymru, Llandudno, June 1-6; Bradford Alhambra, June 8-13; Liverpool Empire June 15-20; Newcastle Theatre Royal, July 27-August 1)
Pub quiz question: where did the song And I will always love you first appear on screen?
Several gold stars to anyone who said The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas – and much respect if you can picture Burt Reynolds’ moustache in that film without flinching. Dolly Parton has written quite the portfolio of pension-plan songs but this one, which she sang originally as a low-key country ballad, is up there with her best investments.
The chorus, incidentally, must be both one of the most-often sung and most difficult to sing ever written. Just listen to yourself…
Cannily, the team that put together the stage show positions the song just before the interval, in a scene that tips its hat to Beyonce and sees Sidonie Smith’s Rachel Marron rise to the heights on a stage set that looks just a fraction too much like a wedding cake for my liking, but nevertheless gives that final iconic key change the hoopla and attention it deserves.
Meanwhile Adam Garcia, in the Kevin Costner role of Frank Farmer, does a great deal of standing around in his good suit, trying to look reassuring and in control. This battle for control, of events and emotions, is at the heart of the story; it’s just as well that Garcia has lost none of his good looks and presence since playing Kevin in Coyote Ugly (not just me, surely?) as he is static for so much of the show.
He does meet the spotlight in a karaoke bar, but as a comedy interlude the scene isn't strong enough and doesn’t mask the fact that it is simply the vehicle for establishing his relationship with Rachel.
And what of our baddie, James-Lee Harris, as the stalker? He is believably creepy, with shades of Eminem’s Stan in video designer Duncan McLean’s backdrops, but with a hint of humanity in his treatment of Rachel’s son Fletcher (Cale Cole at this performance). As in the film, it’s inconceivable that a former soldier would have failed to kill his target at that range, but there we go.
The depth of story in The Bodyguard stops it being simply a jukebox musical. The film’s evolution was long, but enough writers were involved along the way to produce a storyline that absorbs the songs, rather than being overwhelmed by them.
Tim Hatley’s clever set design doesn’t just move us between locations, it also subtly emphasises the sidelining of Rachel’s sister Nicki, played by Sasha Monique. She is the better singer (in the show as well as the story), but invariably we find her sitting in the wings, always pining for Farmer and waiting for her moment of recognition.
Leaving aside the “is he dead at the end?” controversy - which I have to say had passed me by when I first saw the film - the story (and the film) end on a note that is at best wistful and at worst just plain gloomy. So how to resolve the big problem with The Bodyguard as a musical, which is of course the unhappy ending?
Director Thea Sharrock does this by simply ignoring it. She lifts our spirits with a rousing and energetic encore, saving a sing-along reprise of “I wanna dance with somebody” to send the audience out into a drizzly Manchester night happily still humming along, with smiles on their faces.
More info and tickets here
