Jeremy Jordan - Royal Albert Hall

I couldn’t keep up with all of the various songs Jeremy Jordan and his longtime collaborator and musical director Benjamin Rauhala had managed to cram into a concert that finished the ‘right’ side of 10:15pm. Jordan wasn’t exaggerating in the slightest when he told an eager Royal Albert Hall audience – seemingly unfazed by yet another London heatwave – that this was going to be a show covering almost every musical genre. Okay, technically, there wasn’t any seventeenth century Baroque music, and I don’t think there was any jazz either, but in the context of Mr Jordan, predominantly a Broadway musical theatre star, the song choices extended far beyond the standard fare at a musical theatre concert.

The ‘souvenir brochure’ was £10. If you think that’s steep, the producers, Lambert Jackson, have been known to charge as much as £15 at their concerts. Due to a mix-up with the venue staff at a previous concert (nothing to do with Jeremy Jordan) at Cadogan Hall, programmes were sold considerably cheaper, which led to them running out. Patrons who still wanted a programme were then charged £18, comprised of the £15 original charge plus a £3 postage and packing fee. Anyway, the brochure gave no details of who Jordan’s special guests were, but did include a three page ‘early history’ of the Royal Albert Hall, and a one page list of ‘Texan Performers at the Royal Albert Hall’ (Jordan was born and raised in Corpus Christi, TX). To the best of my recollection Jordan did not namecheck a single one of them. I don’t know who Shane Smith and The Saints are.

If the Royal Albert Hall’s auditorium has ‘adiabatic cooling’ (look it up if you care – it is not the same as air conditioning), the Verdi Italian Kitchen restaurant does not, so I was slightly perturbed on a particularly warm day to be served my starter before the still water, Diet Coke or white wine I had also ordered had arrived. I also had stares from a rather snobbish woman on an adjacent table. You can imagine her surprise when my credit card actually worked when it came to settling the bill. Still, an overly hot dining area was a good reason to use my portable electric fan (£12 from Argos). I also managed to snap up the last ice cream that the seller nearest to me had at the interval.

If there are two things Jeremy Jordan likes to do at his London concerts, it’s something from the television musical series Smash (which I have never seen) and ‘Santa Fe’ from the Disney musical Newsies (which I’ve seen multiple times, including a cinema screening of the pro-shot which starred Jordan). An early medley included chart music tunes made famous by distinctly non-Texan artists who had previously performed at the Royal Albert Hall. I think there might have been some Adele and some Coldplay, but you’d have to ask someone who cares. I only know there was some Spice Girls music in there because Benjamin Rauhala said so.

Jordan’s guests were Natalie Paris, Frances Mayli McCann and Jordan Luke Gage. It was almost all Medley Central: Paris joined Jordan for a mashup of something from Smash and something else from The Greatest Showman (you can tell I wasn’t in ‘theatre critic’ mode, and had neither pen nor notepad on my person). It was all things The Great Gatsby with McCann, and all things Bonnie and Clyde with Gage, in what became the ‘Jeremy Jordan Luke Gage Medley’ which went on and on. Not everyone liked the musical Bonnie and Clyde, so I can imagine it was a test of endurance for them, or perhaps even the opportunity for an impromptu second interval, but for those of us who saw that show more times during a limited run that we would dare to admit, it was quite heavenly.

Age of Madness is Jordan’s band, created with his friend Mikael – just one name, apparently, like Madonna – who also featured in this concert (Mikael, not Madonna!). It’s an ‘alternative rock’ band, whatever that means: the one song featured at the Royal Albert Hall was fairly innocuous and I can only assume the musical styles are just as varied at Age of Madness gigs as they are at “JJ” ones. They have a UK leg of their 2026 tour for anyone up for something a little different. As for this night, perhaps only Jeremy Jordan could belt out ‘She Used To Be Mine’ from Waitress as an encore number (if you don’t know it, let’s just say it’s not exactly a tubthumping song to send the audience out on a high), and get another standing ovation for it. Pure brilliance.