A Chorus Line

What I Did for Love is one of the hit songs from A Chorus Line and the 22 performers on the stage this evening certainly did everything possible for the love of this show.

From the word go this was a sure fire hit with video footage of New York and its various districts and when you have such seasoned performers as Melvyn White playing the part of Zach, the director of the show for which they are all auditioning for, you know he is going to be great. To say Melvyn was great is an understatement, he was exceptional, he has a clear voice and every word of his dialogue could be heard whether he was front of house giving instructions to the auditionees or on stage working with them. Melvyn also sang one of the hit songs, What I did for Love treating the audience to his wonderful voice.

At the other end of the scale it was good to see some of the younger members taking lead roles and Louis Wilkinson as Mike Costa’s rendition of I Can do That was excellent, he was able to sing and dance his way through this show with ease.

Another of the great songs in this piece is At The Ballet and again this was put over to the audience superbly by Vicki Wilkinson, Alison Doram and Ellie Cooper, their harmonies were a treasure to hear and I am sure I can speak for the whole of the audience who thoroughly enjoyed it as well as Vicki, Alison and Ellie’s performances as a whole.

This show has a big cast in terms of actual named parts and it would be impossible to mention everyone in the limited space here but it is true to say there was not one weak link in this show and everyone on stage and in the pit deserves the greatest praise possible.

The whole company came together to produce some really excellent numbers such as Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen during which they portrayed their young selves entering puberty, this brought the house down especially when Alison Berry sang the iconic Tits and Ass, absolutely brilliant.

This show calls for not only some great dancers and great singers but also some really good actors and I have to say Geoff Whitfield had got them, especially Thomas White as Paul San Marco who almost towards the end delivered a speech which in the book is three pages long, not an easy feat when it is only you on stage and you are delivering almost as a close up in a film. Thomas delivered this exceptionally well and I know there were a number of tears which had to be wiped away by members of the audience, many congratulations Thomas.

I think everyone knows the big number from this show, One, which brings it to a close; everyone entered the stage in gold sequinned costumes which were reflected by the mirrors at the back of the stage to depict a rehearsal room. The cast brought this to a rousing end with high kicks, superb dancing and outstanding singing at the same time, not an easy show to do both in terms of staging and casting but this was one which Geoff, Iain, Sue and Louise can certainly be proud of.

Thank you also once again for your kind hospitality.

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