40th Anniversary Concert

YCT Company treat us to a full programme of musical theatre joy in celebration of their 40 years anniversary, from the opening number it was clear that the audience were in for a very special night. This is a group who have performed not only locally but have also toured Europe and Russia as well as performing several times at Edinburgh Fringe with musicals, concerts and plays, it must have been a difficult job selecting what to do in the concert from their extensive list of past productions. The company was made up of current members as well as past members who had re-joined to take part in the two special concert performances.

Accompaniment was in the form of a 5 piece band who gave excellent support to the performers and never stopped as we moved from one musical to another.

In a concert such as this it is difficult to single out individual performances but suffice to say that there were no weak links, the quality of singing throughout was top notch.  There was a good mix of full ensemble, small groups, duets and solos. Some numbers had movement which worked really well in the limited performance space available to the cast.

Act 1 opened with “Jesus Christ Superstar” it having been the first musical the group had performed, we then had numbers from “Oliver”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, “Guys and Dolls”, “Little Shop of Horrors” and ended with a personal favourite of mine, “Godspell”. Also during the first act there was a performance of a song “Voices” which came from a musical specially written for the group about Joan of Arc which they performed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1985. It was a beautiful song which you could see meant a lot to those performing it.

Act 2 opened with “Cabaret”, then we had songs from “Slice of Saturday Night”, “Jekyll and Hyde”, “Fame”, “Our House”, “The Wedding Singer”, “Chess”, “Grease”, “Chicago”, “Beauty and the Beast” and of course the finale from “Les Miserables”. YCTC were one of the first groups to get to perform the schools edition in 2004 and it was an obvious choice as a “lift the roof” finale.

It is clear that there is a united respect from this company for their founder and director Linda Watson MBE, Linda’s passion for the performing arts is infectious and as always her words after the show regarding our hobby were relevant and moving. Congratulations to Linda and David for putting together a wonderful packed programme and to the cast for learning it all! Your audience reaction will have left you in no doubt as to how much it was enjoyed! Well done all and here’s to the next 40 years!

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