FIRST NIGHT | POP

Robbie Williams — part comedy, part karaoke, not enough hits

Hyde Park, W2
Robbie Williams brought a version of his Las Vegas show to Hyde Park
Robbie Williams brought a version of his Las Vegas show to Hyde Park
MARILYN KINGWILL

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★★☆☆☆
Robbie Williams lives in Las Vegas, where he recently completed his first residency and is rumoured to be starting a second soon. Yet if his long-held dream of breaking the States is to come true, it will be for his shtick, not his hits.

His well-received Vegas show is part comedy, part karaoke, only lightly sprinkled with his songs — fair enough in a city in which he’s not well known. Performing such a cheesy set in Hyde Park, however, was at best a bad decision, at worst a dereliction of his duty to fans who hadn’t come to hear Shaggy’s It Wasn’t Me sung barbershop style.

A reworked national anthem announced the arrival of the 45-year-old Williams and declared him “totally global, except