A Night at the Music Hall

Once again The Northallerton  Company  produced the goods, this was an superb production, with nearly every Old  Time song you could remember and very well presented and choreographed with Amy Spence doing a first class job.

The set was very simple with draped curtains which really did set the Old Time scene perfectly. There were many excellent performances very well sung indeed with a very strong chorus line and with comedy items included in the songs. Every Musical Hall Show has to have a Chairman and Richard Henry did an magnificent job with this, full of long difficult words to pronounce, in the mode of Leonard Sachs of City Varieties Day’s. With 29 numbers in the first half, and 31 in the second half there couldn’t have been many more to call upon.

The show got off to a rousing start with “Let’s All Go To The Music Hall “ and that we surely did. The first section finished with David Ferry, the first of his solo’s and the chorus” Getting Him to the Church on Time.” The next  section began with Lucille  Taylor’s superb rendition of “Stately As a Galleon” We were then reminded of that well liked duet by Flanagan and Allan’s Strolling very well delivered by James  Cornick & Martin Holdsworth, to be followed by Susan Wildon who reminded us of Albert’s visit to the Zoo, and later reminded us of The Biggest  Aspidistra In The World - really very well done. The  Junior section then gave us  four well acted songs with Eleanor  Reynolds singing Alice Blue Gown very well indeed. The first half finished with a trip around England with the well known songs  from Lancashire, Scotland, Yorkshire Northumberland  and Tyneside.

The second half began with songs from  Cockney land  with  Tracie  Birdsall, David Allan, David Ferry and Andrew Cunningham as soloists, along with the chorus and the dancers. The next section  was a mixed bag and included the Junior’s singing  Run Rabbit Run, Hey little Hen, How much is that Doggy in the Window all very well sung by Evie Cooke, Megan Howlett, Eleanor Reynolds, Laura  Reynolds, Annie Smithson, Laura West, Rosie Wilson, Sam  Baxter and Brooke Taylor who brought the house down with a superb solo rendition of Burlington Bertie. These youngsters are the future of the Society, and how well they performed.

The following section began with the old favourite Nobody Loves a Fairy and was excellently presented by  Tracie Birdsall/ Andrea Rhodes/ and Lucille Taylor who also gave us Joshua. James Cornick excelled with his solo ”If These lips Could Only  Speak“. The Dancers, were in many numbers but they brought the house down with The  Can Can. Other member’s not previously mentioned who sang solos were  Roger Kiddle & Katherine Laverick.

Finally the last section was good old War Time memories, with strong songs by the Male Chorus and included the entire cast with solo’s from Joan Wilkinson, Laura Reynolds and the Junior’s. The Chairman then rounded the show up  and finished up with the entire Company and the Audience  with the traditional “Down at the Old Bull and Bush”.

Alan Owens arranged all the musical numbers and directed the small ensemble very well indeed. The person deserving of much credit is Andrea Atkinson who directed the show in this her production as a Director and how well she did.

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