A Night at the West End (of Tadcaster)

“Life is a cabaret, old chum; come to the cabaret”.  The words of the song will be all the more familiar around Tad these days as, following a similar event a few months ago, this company managed to find time, on this occasion in the midst of rehearsals for next month’s pantomime, to allow some of their members a one-night opportunity to entertain us with songs from the shows. 

Six members of the group were joined by guests, Summer Mason and Chris Hagyard to remind us – and now and again introduce some of us – to pieces from a wide variety of musical sources, ranging from “Nessun  Dorma” (“Turandot”) to “Spotlight” (“Everybody’s Talking about Jamie”).  The variety extended not simply to the programme for the evening but also to the choices which some individuals had made.  Michael Hewett, for instance, went from Fagin’s “Gotta pickapocket or two”, to Javert’s “Stars” and, finally, the more subdued Captain von Trapp’s “Edelweiss”, in which he was accompanied by Sue White on keyboard and later joined by Justine Hamilton.  That particular trio of songs will surely never before have been attempted by the same artist in the same performance. Justine also showed her versatility with a song from “Waitress” (“She used to be mine”), “On my own” (“Les Miserables”) and “Maybe this time” as well as the title song from “Cabaret”.      

Andrew Lloyd had opened the evening with a heartfelt appraisal of the pleaure which amateur theatre brings to audiences and performers alike before leading us all in “Oh, what a beautiful mornin’ (Oklahoma!).  He it was who brought us Puccini’s aria before taking on the role of King George in “You’ll be back” (“Hamilton”).  His co-producer of this show, Charlotte Towers, is a familiar performer from pantomimes at Tadcaster but we saw her in different mood here with “I can hear the bells” (“Hairspray”), “I dreamed a dream” (Les Miserables) and “The Wizard and I” (Wicked).  Emma Fothergill completed the programme by members of the Tadcaster company with the aforementioned “Spotlight” and “I’m not that girl” (“Wicked”) in which she was accompanied by Sue White on keyboard.  Other items were performed to backing tracks.      

I hope the regulars will not take offence if I say that it was the performances of their guests which were the highlights of the evening. After all, if you’re going to bring in guests, you need to choose good ones and they certainly did not disappoint. Chris Hagyard was another to show us differing characters, Valjean in an excellent performance of “Bring Him Home”, via Amos Hart’s “Mr. Cellophane” to the Elvis-style “Song of the King” (“Joseph”).  Meanwhile, Summer Mason, albeit only a youngster, told us of “The Life I never led” (“Sister Act”),  the life she would like to have as Roxie (“Chicago”), so long as she was “Popular” (“Wicked”), before ending the show in a duet with Charlotte Towers, “Defying Gravity” (“Wicked”).  In between she had joined her mother, Keely Mason in another duet from that show, “For Good”.   It was clear that she should have a long and successful career in musical theatre in front of her.  Mind you, her mother is a talented performer too and we enjoyed joining her in London as she took on the roles of Nancy with “As long as he needs me” (“Oliver!”) and Eliza telling us “Wouldn’t it be Loverly” (“My Fair Lady”).

The good folk of Tadcaster had certainly responded to the invitation to “come to the cabaret” by turning out in good numbers and so the event proved a real success.  Pantomime rehearsals are in full swing and we look forward to joining Dick Whittington and the rest of them in search of London’s streets of gold in a few weeks.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.