A Spoonful Of Sherman

A Spoonful Of Sherman is a musical revue created by Robert J. Sherman which celebrates three generations of his songwriting family’s century-long musicaljourney.  St Mary’s Players were asked to perform the UK Amateur premiere with current President Ben Stock who previously toured with the UK professional production and Green Room Ents Ltd.

The music and storytelling took the audience on a journey through the songs that have been the soundtrack to generations. From Mary Poppins to The Jungle Book, and from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to Winnie the Pooh. What made this production stand out to me was hearing these beloved classics while also highlighting lesser-known gems and the stories behind their creation. The storytelling between songs, giving insight into the Shermans' career and personal lives adding depth and context, making these familiar songs feel even more meaningful.

The stage space at the venue is small, so wisely SMP kept the stage bare but added decorative kites on the back cyc and some multicoloured umbrellas around the Proscenium arch, there were some stairs down into the audience which were used both as an alternative entrance and exit and create some nice levels. There was space at floor level that maybe could have been used a bit more as the stage looked a bit cramped when everyone was on it. The audience were sat cabaret style, with lovely on theme table decorations, which worked really well.

For Sound, 3 Shot-gun staged microphones and 2 hanging microphones were used mainly for solos/duets and projection of voices for chorus numbers. The amplification was generally well-used as performers positioned themselves to the microphones. The two-piece band, piano and drums played really well.  The drum screening worked brilliantly. Initially, the piano sound slightly overpowered the vocals in the first half through the speaker which we were very close to, but this was adjusted during the interval, allowing the singers to come through clearly for the remainder of the performance.

Lighting. Good use was made of limited resources on stage available. There was a great use of colour on-stage with Gobos and other effects used. I really liked the LED lighting effects used with the walls of the hall to generate atmosphere. Cueing was very good. You coped really well with the power failure on-stage for Act 1, which was well-recovered for Act 2, making the star cloth a key feature.

One of the aspects I truly love about watching revues like A Spoonful of Sherman is the opportunity to see talented performers in a different light—often performers I don’t always see in the leading roles of the main productions. These settings allow all performers in the group to showcase their skills allowing their individual talents to shine through. I can’t mention each individual performance, but the company delivered a high energy performance throughout, with some lovely harmonies and solo performances, from “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” to the playful “The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers”, to “There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow”, “That’s What Friends are For” and the closing Number of “Let’s Go Fly A Kite”. ” That said, particularly memorable was “I Wanna Be Like You” some great animal sounds and movements! I also really enjoyed hearing the more unfamiliar to me, earlier songs. There were a few moments where diction could have been clearer, particularly in some of the faster-paced songs, but this didn’t detract from the overall experience.

The choreography was well-suited to the production and the venue, The movements were thoughtfully created to reflect the essence of the songs without overwhelming the limited stage area and was all executed very well. We really enjoyed the variety from ‘You Gotta Be a Football Hero’ through to the 1950s styles used in ‘Comes-Along-A-Love’. ‘Step in Time’ was also quite ingenious. The key to this was pace – there were a lot of songs here and narration, and though songs were often reduced in length and ‘medlied’ you seamlessly went between all of these in a very slick way, never allowing interest in the performance to dip. This was no-mean feat – so very well done!

In summary, we had a great evening and left feeling nostalgic and smiling and also with “It’s A Small World” earworm going round and round for days!

Thank you for your hospitality and the lovely Ploughman’s.

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