City Show is Musical Marvel

SETUP LACKING: 'CANDLELIGHT: A TRIBUTE TO COLDPLAY' IS AT SHEPSTONE

- Hein Kaiser

Instead of just watching a show, sitting in a theatre and staring at the stage ahead, experiences like Candlelight take it a step further.

Well, try to, in any case. Production company Fever's global series of string quartet and music experiences by candlelight are fantastic, because the music makes it so.

As for the rest of the experience, it needs a little bit more imagination.

As estate agents always say: location, location, location. Perhaps it was the Candlelight's biggest challenge. Because other shows have taken place at the spectacular Shepstone Gardens in Orange Grove.

Yet, if you want to experience Coldplay, the event was at the NH Hotel, formerly the Hilton, in Sandton. Not that the hotel was fugly, it's a stunning setting.

But dressing up a conference centre with just a stage rise surrounded by battery candles is not creating an experience. Not at close to R1 000 for front row seats and half of that for the cheap seats, where the setup didn't allow for much of an experience.