A Christmas Yule Remember

This really was a memory jogger of a show as we were reminded of No 1 songs from Christmas Hit Parades since the mid 1950s, the programme giving us a full list.  It was surprising to learn that very few of these numbers actually has Christmas connections but, nevertheless, a happy cast gave full voice to everything their production team gave them.

We started and finished with Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ and worked through the years in a random way bringing us right up to date with Ed Sheeran’s 2017 ‘Perfect’, excellently performed by Rick Windley, and ‘We Built This City’ (2018 Ladbaby).  In between the Company reminded us of several Beatles hits from the 60s, Cliff’s ‘Mistletoe and Wine (1988) and ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ which was a success for Harry Belafonte in 1957 and Boney M in 1978.

There were also some good performances from Aaron Storey (‘When You Believe’ from 2007) and Manda Holderness with ‘Rockabye’ from 2016.  Stand out small group numbers included East 17’s ‘Stay Another Day from 1994 and Scaffold’s ‘Lily The Pink’ (1968), well performed by Kenneth Davison, Richard Mainprize and Gordon Rodgerson.  I also enjoyed Richard with Maggie Davies in ‘Somethin’ Stupid’, a No 1 from Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman in 2001.

The final segment also included Christmas numbers from Slade, Mud and Shakin’ Stevens and the performance was nicely linked by Victoria Mitchell.

The cast sang well throughout the show, with some good harmonies, augmented by Geoff Allanach on keyboard, and excellent use was made of the screen at the back of the stage.  The costumes were super as always although I was not a fan of those worn in the opening.

The chosen theme for the show was very good and gave loads of scope but perhaps didn’t really allow it to be as Christmassy as I would have liked.  It was also a shame that there weren’t more people there to enjoy what was a very entertaining evening.

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