For those of a certain age mention The Bodyguard and their mind will wander back to the early 1990s Warner Brothers romantic thriller, and in particular Whitney Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You, that featured on the soundtrack and spent ten weeks at number one.
Since 2012 there has also been a stage musical, and a large audience was in the Winter Gardens Opera House on a damp November Monday evening for the opening night of the current run in Blackpool. They were treated to a polished and engaging feel-good performance with several standout musical highlights.
I saw The Bodyguard at the Winter Gardens in 2023 and really enjoyed it. The 2025 version was a bit like the new model of a popular and highly selling car, the underlying core strength
built on with some appreciated enhancements.
Without giving too much away things got off to a loud and dramatic start, which was also the
case when things resumed after the interval. Impressive visual effects drew the audience in
but in a musical consisting largely of female solos the night was going to hinge on its key
vocalist Sidonie Smith. Smith has the vocal talents and range to carry this burden
successfully as lead Rachel Marron. She receives strong support from the actress playing
sister Nicki Marron, and their duet is one of the highlights of the show. Many of the numbers
will be well known to most, including pop anthems such as I’m Every Woman, One Moment
In Time and Saving All My Love. In all, seven of them have featured in the UK Top 20 over
the years.
The male characters naturally play second fiddle to the female ones given their only singing
parts are either brief or ironic, or both. Adam Garcia gives an accomplished self-deprecating
performance as the professional bodyguard Frank Farmer. The effects and props are bold and
attention grabbing, particularly as might be expected for the more up-tempo musical pieces.
The sounds and visual effects have clearly been stepped up on the last run in Blackpool, and
are stunning.
The Bodyguard musical is also worth the entrance fee for the feel good encore. The vast
majority of the Thursday audience stayed for all of this dancing, clapping foot-tapping
Whitney singalong finale.
The Bodyguard is showing nightly between now and Sunday at 7.30pm, with an additional matinee performance at 2.30pm on Saturday. To book tickets click here.
Photography credit: Paul Coltas
