Royal Festival Hall, London, March 8, 2025

A concert encapsulating the scores of the first 23 Marvel movies from 2008’s Iron Man to 2019’s Spider-Man: Far from Home (covering Phases 1 to 3 of the MCU) hits the road in a seven-date tour of the UK. 

Avengers Assemble! Remember when Marvel movies were good? Really good? After two hours of this ‘best of’ concert, the audience were in no doubt that the comic book movies’ halcyon days peaked with the Avengers double-bill of Infinity War and Endgame.

After a spectacular premiere by the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl last summer, the show is being taken on the road. With so many movies to choose from, it’s inevitable that not every film receives great focus (Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel suffer here, and there’s no coverage of the Iron Man and Thor sequels) but this is an impressive ‘Now That’s What I Call Marvel’ that covers off the series’ big characters and their iconic themes.

The Novello Orchestra is led by conductor David Mahoney, suave in his black velvet jacket, encouraging the excited audience to whoop and cheer when their favourite characters and moments turned up. This suggestion was heeded, and there was clearly a lot of love in the room for so many of the heroes, experiencing big moments.

Michael Giacchino’s Marvel Studios logo fanfare was the only way to start the concert, followed by sections dedicated to Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel and Black Panther. Apart from Strange and Marvel, who were covered off by their main theme over a montage, most of the characters had one or two key scenes from their movies, played out with live orchestra. And as well as the score, the programme was peppered with appropriate, orchestrated songs from the movies.

The second half opened with a variation on the Marvel Studios logo fanfare and a section on the Guardians of the Galaxy. And then the big stuff – Avengers Infinity War and Endgame. Significant sections of each movie were projected with live score, including the epic Portals moment. And alongside John Williams’ Superman and Danny Elfman’s Batman, is there a better superhero theme than Alan Silvestri’s Avengers theme? I think not, and every time we were treated to it, goosebumps assembled on the skin.

Verdict: An epic reminder of just how good Marvel movies can be, recognising the propulsive role that the score plays in driving the action. Excellent performances by the orchestra to an appreciative audience. As Stan ‘The Man’ Lee would have said – ‘Excelsior’! 10/10

Nick Joy