Almost Anything Goes

ALMOST ANYTHING GOES

Presented by

Stone Revellers

A sad realisation as I begin writing this, as it is probably my penultimate NODA Show Review, as my seven year tenure comes to a close, I must say it has been both an honour and a privilege to represent NODA in District 3 of the West Midlands, we have seen some amazing performers and performances and made lots of new friends.

The title alone on this collection of musicals, performed over three nights, says a lot about the Revellers. They have been a revelation over the last seven years, the sheer scale and diversity of what they produce and the growing quality year on year has been fabulous.

“Almost Anything Goes” really does sum them up. Ever growing and developing as theatre groups must to survive and thrive, with new and exuberant performers Stone Revellers opened the concert with Seasons of Love from Rent, featuring the whole ensemble and some beautiful harmonies, a great way to start the night’s musical extravaganza.

Emma Wilson then delved into the opener from Rocky Horror Science Fiction – Double Feature a restrained nuanced performance, with a huge nod to the Picture Show original soundtrack and equally impressive. She was aided and abetted by ooh, ooh, ooh, backing vocalists appearing either side of the back curtain and fabulously augmented on sax courtesy of Maddie Hall.                                                                                                                                                                       

Hosted elegantly by Sean Galloghly, his animated cheeky-chappie patter moved the show on at a good pace without feeling hurried or drawn out. Nice one.

Dan Stubbs as MD, playing piano for the live numbers, obviously had his piano set on the exquisite preset as it was truly excellent throughout. His solo vocal piece of Maria from West Side Story also impressed.

I don’t propose to run through every number presented, other than to say there was a brilliant and goodly diverse selection, I will say we kicked-back, relaxed, to George Harratt’s Loose Feet, and as for the Emily Badger’s delightful rendition of She Used To Be Mine. Wow!

Act II featured a post Act One, think it over in the interval trigger warning from Sean, with much aplomb, Joe Jenkinson strutted his vocal styling of Frankenfurter, giving us a besuited non-transvestite, Sweet Transvestite, from Rocky Horror.

Defying Gravity from Emma, Maddie, Emily together with Tamsin Brown, great piano accompaniment from Dan, leading nicely into Hannah Adams lovely On My Own.

Tamsin also joined in on guitar for a couple of numbers to great effect. The final few numbers, including Hairspray favourite You Can’t Stop The Beat had the house wanting more.

Sound and lighting was spot on, crisp and clear, a good combination of predominantly live music, plus a couple of backing tracks.

I absolutely loved the humour of their goodbye song, So Long, Farewell  from The Sound of Music, the final lines from Maddie before being carried off by Emma was hilarious. My only let down for the whole night was the inclusion of the ubiquitous ABBA song, that is very much a personal aversion of course, they are much loved, just not by me.

A superb night’s entertainment from a superb set of entertainers.

 

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