A Night at the Musicals
Information
- Date
- 19th October 2018
- Society
- Littlehampton Players Operatic Society
- Venue
- The Windmill Theatre
- Type of Production
- Musical Review
- Director
- Sarah Smith
- Musical Director
- Daniel Paine
- Choreographer
- Sarah Smith and others
To choose a programme from the mass of material available in musical theatre is never an easy task but this was a very successful effort. Carefully woven together the chosen items reflected different moods and the skilful handling of the ‘tongue-twister’ type words, in a number of the numbers, could be clearly followed. The projected scenes on the back cloth worked really well transporting the audience from place to place with each separate piece, the costumes were a delight, the lighting showing them off to great advantage, and the choreography brought music and words to the fore allowing us to appreciate the skills of the various composers not to mention the members of this excellent company
This evening’s entertainment opened with ONE from CHORUS LINE with the entire company of approximately 40 performers marching around the stage all smartly dressed in identical outfits raising the roof with their great singing. I did feel that the stage was a little over crowded but it was certainly a foretaste of the excellence in store for the whole evening. Tony Baker followed this with a delightful rendition of THIS IS THE MOMENT after which a group of talented young men sang GEE OFFICER KRUPKE, not only sung well but performed with huge amounts of humour. Like everyone else I have favourites when it comes down to choices and SEND IN THE CLOWNS sung by Lesley Mercer ‘fitted the bill’ for me. It was sung with such feeling I couldn’t help but enjoy it. Sarah chose 42ND STREET for the closing of Act One, the company showing off their skills with rhythmical tap dancing making for a rousing half time finale.
The second half opened with two outstanding chorus numbers, the first ONE BRICK AT A TIME, the solo part sung by Sarah Smith and then COME FOLLOW THE BAND which captured the audience’s ‘feel good factor’ encouraging them to clap and hum along with the cast. James and Oliver introduced us to a new song called SEND IN THE BAILIFFS from a brand new show called HUMBUG which, with luck, will be performed locally fairly soon. For me the star number of this highly enjoyable show was PAPA CAN YOU HEAR ME from YENTL sung outstandingly by Gudrun Lehmann-Shanks and the whole evening was closed by a great rendition of PILATE’S DREAM by Simon Smith and a dramatic ending, by the whole company, of THE RHYTHM OF LIFE from SWEET CHARITY.
This society certainly know how to please an audience. Well done.
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