Emma Bunton: The Christmas Show 2022: ‘A glitzy triumph’ 

“It’s CHRISTMAS!” screams Kaiser Chiefs’ Ricky Wilson, hoarsely: a punishing noise that echoes around London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane. He’s a tuneful wailer – remember ‘I Predict a Riot’? – but the climactic bellow of Slade’s ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’, arguably, calls for ugliness. And such a sound was never going to come from Ricky’s duet partner, Baby Spice, whose honeyed vocals were a revelation at this week’s Emma Bunton: The Christmas Show 2022. She’s such an underrated singer!

Not that Em’s a belter, of course. Backing singers sometimes overpower, but never overwhelm her during this highly entertaining gig. Naturally, when Sporty Spice Melanie C stops by for a surprise rendition of the Spice Girls’ ‘Stop’ – which absolutely brings the house down, by the way, such is the punch of the SG’s incredible string of singles – she out-sings Emma, too. But that was always how the band structured things.

I used to think Emma was the whipped cream on top of a Spice Girls harmony. I now realise, she’s more like the secret sauce. What she lacks in volume and impromptu runs she makes up for in sparkly vocal beauty, distinctive tone and faultless control. She’s reliable and professional. She glides effortlessly through a slew of glossy Christmas standards, from ‘Sleigh Ride’ to ‘Jingle Bell Rock’. Her silky, playful take on ‘Santa Baby’ has Attitude imagining her voice blended with Kylie Minogue’s. 

But the festive schtick comes at a cost. She rattles through her biggest solo hits in medley form: an astonishing hedging of bets that bemuses at least one hardcore fan… Attitude would have traded a ‘Rockin’ Robin’ or two for full versions of gritty, guitar-laden anthems ‘What I Am’ and ‘What Took You So Long?’ (For a while there, in the late 90s/early 00s, she really went against the grain, didn’t she?) At least the perfect pop song that is ‘Maybe’ gets a fuller airing, complex choreo and all. (Full marks to Emma’s troupe of Royal Ballet-ready dancers, whose routines are very ambitious for such a brief tour.)

An extended Spice Girls medley is also a touch hurried. I would have been fascinated to hear her comprehensive take on ‘Viva Forever’. But this makes sense, as it allows Baby to avoid her bandmates’ verses, for the most part. It also gives the show a sprightly, engaging pace. That said, she takes her time to find new dimensions in the quietly profound ‘2 Become 1’. In an (I think) unprecedented move, she performs it with her husband Jade Jones, of 90s boy band Damage. She’s previously sang it with Robbie Williams and Will Young, which we could take or leave. This, thought, felt like witnessing something truly special.

All in all, she kills it. She had to. Upping the ante of what might otherwise have been a feather-light evening is the mild backlash last week to Emma cancelling, with 90 minutes’ notice, a show in York due to an undisclosed illness. Tonight, you get the sense she has an equilibrium to restore, which gives the show unexpected depth and tension. As such, Emma is all steely determination. Although her version of game face is emotional accessibility – she’s sometimes visibly teary after a rough few days – punctuated with sugary sweet smiles, comfortable audience repartee and an irresistible arsenal of songs.