A Night at the Oscars

On arrival in the auditorium, the audience was met with an impressive looking projection announcing the title of the concert, set in front of a sparkling star cloth. There was even a strip of red-carpet front stage, from where most of the soloists sang. I counted a cast of over 80 youngsters in the programme (mainly Junior and Inters with some Seniors) with a mammoth and varied selection of over 45 songs. Each number or group of numbers was impressively introduced by two hosts for the show; Joe Hunt and Ivy Affron, both slick presenters, with Ivy often poking a bit of fun at Joe, very much in the style of the Oscars! Each number was given a category and as each was introduced, the category and title of each number was displayed on the overhead screen which was effective. Readers of this review will appreciate it will not be possible to mention every number, suffice to say that all were well presented and I looked to check that everyone up to and including the back rows was properly engaged with the action.

The full company presented an enthusiastic opening number ‘Let’s go to the Movies’ from Annie and this was followed by Imogen Taylor providing a perky ‘Wouldn’t it be Lovely’ from My Fair Lady. The Juniors provided great energy with ‘Get Back Up Again’ and Harriette Townsend provided good characterisation as Miss Hannigan singing ‘Little Girls’. Bonnie Pickering sang ‘Times are Hard for Dreamers’ from Amelie, with feeling. Harry Woolfenden gave a confident performance singing ‘Corner of the Sky’ from Pippin and I really enjoyed Ivy Affron’s ‘History of Wrong Guys’ from Kinky Boots.

Poppy Banks had a strong  expressive voice singing ‘Kindergarten Boyfriend’ from Heathers and Jonny Hale did well with four senior dancers, singing ‘Consider Yourself’ and there was some good singing with feeling from Isobel Morgan with ‘As Long as he needs me’, also from Oliver!

For me there were three extra special performances during Act 1; Matthew Houghton’s ‘Words Fail’ from Dear Evan Hansen, powerful and emotional, wanted more of Flo Sinfield’s beautiful solo and Demi Delford’s ’My Heart Will Go On’ from Titanic, which brought a real crescendo to close Act 1.

But I can’t help but mention a few others who did really well; Iona Laidler as an expressive Miss Trunchbull with ‘The Smell of Rebellion’ from Matilda, Jessica Barrett singing ‘If They Could see me Now’ with bags of personality, Alice Medlicott’s ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ gentle with good control and Georgia Perrigo with ‘What it means to be a friend’ from 13: The Musical, sung with feeling.

An unusual number, ‘Who Will Love me as I am’ from Side Show, was well delivered as cojoined twins by Lucy and Grace Pullin and this was followed by Poppy and Daisy Swatton unsurprisingly singing ‘Sisters’ from White Christmas; good voices, expressive faces and some nice cartwheels! Zara Walmsley proved she was born to entertain (Ruthless!) in the Best Pushy Mother / Child Category and Jessie Skelton also sang her solo well.

I stated earlier I could not mention every number, but one after the other, Act 2 contained 16 excellent numbers including Harry Woolfenden and the inter team providing a great opening ‘Flash Bang Wallop’. Betsie Wood gave a full-on performance of ‘I Want it Now’ from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Annabel Parsons was strong and clear singing ‘Don’t Rain on my Parade’ from Funny Girl. Poppy Banks and Flo Sinfield were both excellent singing ‘Just One Day’ from Freaky Friday’, Rosie Woolfenden gave a really super cool performance singing ‘Cool Kid’ from Polka Dots: The Movie, and I really enjoyed the two numbers from Little Shop of Horrors; the title number sung by Frankie Cook-Stephens, Maisie Forrester and Annabel Parsons, beautifully synchronised followed by Matthew Houghton and Frankie’s ‘Suddenly Seymour’.

Pennie McConalogue and Lydia Foxall’s ‘Anything you can do’ was charming, and Harla Pennell gave a great performance with ‘Skyfall’. I think we spotted Joe (James) Bond who was very amusing. Maisie Forrester’s What a Feeling’ with four senior dancers was great and so too was Lauren Barrett’s number. The Junior team then returned to entertain us, fronted by no less than 6 young lads and Libby Faulkner in a sparkly dress, gave nothing short of a sparkling performance. The Inters rounded off the official programme with the title song from Footloose and an encore was a great flying high conclusion to a superb production.

It's now a taken that the youngsters will cope well singing against backing tracks. Those with hand mics handled them very well and the very young are well on the learning curve with personal mics, where projection will only improve with more experience. That said, the sound levels were spot on, the costumes were a delight and the lighting created an impressive looking stage, which enabled director Leanne Cook, MD and vocal coach Sarah Stone and choreographers Nikki Parsons, Libby Faulkner and Demi Delord and the rest of the production team, to create a true showcase for the Theatre Factory talent on show. Congratulations to all involved.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.