A Night At The Musicals

It is not always appreciated by the audience that a concert consisting of ‘songs from the shows’ can involve as much if not more overall preparation that a book show, and this I suspect was one of those, with over 25 numbers from 11 West End musicals, all dressed exceptionally well with great attention to detail. The standard was very high throughout which makes it very difficult to mention each one.

Never the less, the opening sequence from ‘Sister Act’ was a great start with some lovely harmonies from the ladies with ‘I Will Follow Him’ to be followed and joined by 5 youngsters when the audience clapped along enthusiastically with ‘Happy Days’. ‘Hail Holy Queen’ was full of life.

Andy Evans held our attention with ‘Luck be a Lady’ from Guys and Dolls and Karen Evans sang with great expression in ‘Honey Bun’ from South Pacific. A couple of numbers from Anything Goes were well presented including Jude Sanderson with ‘I Get A kick Out of You’ and Lucy Tedds with ‘Anything Goes’.  Three numbers from Oliver followed; ‘As Long As He Needs Me’  was very strong sung by Casey Benson,  ‘Oom Pah Pah’ led by Christie Kislak was given all the right treatment with full chorus participation and Fagin (Tim Wilson) and 5 youngsters sang a well -directed ‘Pick a Pocket’.

‘There Are Worse Things I Could Do’ from Grease was well sung by Daisy- Mae Jones and the final two numbers from Moulin Rouge involved a well-directed ‘Elephant Love Melody’ and very impressive sequence of ‘Backstage Romance’.

In Act 2, a star cloth was added for most numbers to an otherwise but effective black set on two levels. The opening sequence from Chess was particularly good. The first number ‘One Night In Bangkok’ (Andrew Evans) with stylish costumes was very good, ‘Someone Else’s Story’ sung by Kendra Yates was poised and expressive but the stand out numbers for me were ‘I Know Him So Well’ sung by Chloe Yates and Kendra Yates and particularly  ‘Nobody’s Side’ also sung by Chloe Yates.

The numbers that followed from ‘Come From Away’ were tremendous and full of feeling, including Penny Sant with ‘I Am Here’. ‘Smell of Rebellion’ from Matilda was well tackled with full marks to Andrew Evans as Miss Trunchbull and ‘When I Grow Up’ led by Maisie Quinn.

Finally, the concert closed with  3 strong numbers from Wicked including Jude Sanderson / Casey Benson singing ‘What Is This Feeling’ and Chloe Yates / Jess Crook singing ‘For Good’, culminating in a great and deserved ovation from the audience.

I must compliment the orchestra (I don’t always) on remaining supportive to the singers – never intrusive, together with some balanced sound and the four choreographers around which the concert held its strength. Congratulations to all involved and I look forward to pantomime next year. Oh yes I do!

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