All the ingredients for a night of potential ... magic, as it turned out.

This was not a rehearsal, this was a leisurewear walk through the life of a singing legend, and if Dionne Warwick chooses to turn up (for the first half at least) in a jumper and slacks, who is arguing?

Certainly not those audience members she gently chided for not being in their seat at 7.30; or the miscreant whose phone went off – twice! And if Ms Warwick asks you to join in the chorus – just do it!

We are talking commanding stage presence here, from a fiercely independent woman who tells her fascinating life story her way, and sings the songs that punctuate that life, for a show that could well end up in London or on Broadway.

By that time backdrop images, or even strings and brass – to properly augment the orchestral power of her voice – might well support it all.
In the meantime she has been touring, and talking, for three weeks, and it has taken its toll. But even at less than full power her voice can mesmerise.

If she occasionally ducked the top notes she's slick enough to improvise and take old favourites to new places.

This, after all, was the soundtrack to most of the audience's life. A medley of pop classics, most of them on the gold standard, and each hallmarked by that superlative Warwick style.
Simply a night to remember.

David Upton