All Aboard

I very much liked the setting for this musical revue, with the front of the stage in navy with a white line and portholes surrounded in lights. On the stage was an upper level and central staircase which provided some height at the back of the stage as well as being evocative of a ship. This was very effective. Lighting was also excellent with the disco ball used to good effect.

This was a lovely varied programme with a huge array of songs from lesser-known musicals as well as old favourites. There were a few soloists that I would have liked to have heard more from but on the whole, most of the cast were given an opportunity to perform a solo or duet. As usual for this group, costumes were excellent and varied with each song having an appropriate look – no mean feat given the number of costumes this required.

The band was extremely professional with a good balance between the eight musicians and the singers. Their skills were called upon a few times during the evening in order to keep in time with the singers, but they achieved this admirably.

The choreographer had a huge amount of work to do for this production with most of the numbers including dance. There were lots of different styles, from tap to tango, and the dancers were well rehearsed and enjoyable to watch. I particularly liked the pole dance performed by the choreographer herself during ‘With you’ from Ghost the Musical. Performed behind a gauze, this looked really beautiful.

There was a strong start to the performance with a company rendition of a Titanic medley as they made their way through the audience and up onto the stage.  Starting at the back of the auditorium did make it rather awkward to see them without turning around in your seat, but once they had moved to the sides, this worked much better.  The projection of images onto a screen on stage was a good idea although I was unsure why these were of a modern cruise ship and not the Titanic.  However, the chorus singing was good and a real sense of excitement and anticipation was created as the company went aboard.

The programme then moved on to various solos, duets and trios with the company and dancers added where appropriate, as well as items of furniture and the odd prop when needed.  A risk was taken by not having any narration but this was generally successful, enabling the revue to maintain pace and for each number to flow seamlessly into the next.  I did however appreciate the detailed list of numbers provided in the excellent programme.    Following some well sung power ballads ‘Anthem’ from Chess and ‘This is the moment’ from Jekyll and Hyde, Act 1 was brought to a close with an impressive rendition of ‘I will survive’ from Priscilla Queen of the Desert, performed with energy and some great disco moves.

Act 2 had many memorable solos.  Notably ‘She used to be mine’ from Waitress, ‘With You’ from Ghost the musical and ‘What I did for Love’ from A Chorus Line. These were all beautifully sung and with real emotion.   ‘With one Look’ from Sunset Boulevard was also well sung but marred slightly by being set in front of a poorly lit gauze, which meant the stage crew could clearly be seen behind setting up the pole for the next number.  A blackout and spotlight on the singer would have been more effective and less distracting during this iconic number. 

Another highlight was ‘You will be found’ from Dear Evan Hansen, with the lead singer creating a lovely focus and stillness to the number. ‘He’s my Boy’ from Everybody’s talking about Jamie was excellently sung and acted and provided a great contrast to the final number. A rousing rendition of ‘Copacabana’ from the whole company, with lots of fun dance moves, finished a very enjoyable evening on a high. 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.