“We’re gonna get to know each other better tonight,” John Legend promises his audience, speaking smoothly over an easy piano melody. Billed as An Evening with John Legend, tonight’s concept is simple: just Legend, his voice, his life story and a piano. It’s a bold choice to stage an entire two-act Royal Albert Hall show alone with no accompaniment, but if there’s anyone who can keep an audience entertained for two hours, it’s Legend. His agile voice and virtuoso pianist skills shine when left to stand alone, even if the bare-bones nature of the staging is a little startling.
Born in 1978 in Springfield, Ohio – or in his words, “the Slough of the States” – John Stephens was a musical and academic prodigy, whose love of music began in his family’s Pentecostal church. After a tough adolescence, which included the death of his grandmother and his mother’s resulting substance abuse, Stephens beat the odds and continued to excel. He inherited control of the church choir from his grandmother, then sailed through his school exams and started university two years earlier than scheduled. After years of balancing studies and office jobs, Stephens took a leap into becoming a professional musician, adopted his “Legend” stage name and released his first album, Get Lifted, in 2004 to critical acclaim.
