Back to the Musical Future

It was great to be ‘Back to the Theatre’ after 18 months away with CLOGS Musical Theatre and their youth section, ‘The Clogettes’, who produced a wonderful evening’s entertainment to a grateful audience in St Peter’s Church.

This compilation show was linked together using the ‘Back to the Future’ story as a theme, sending the comparing couple, ‘Fred and Ginger’ (Chis Howlett and Lucy Ibbetson) backwards and forwards in time from 1985 – except via a front-room sofa and TV, instead of a DeLorean Car!  As a result, musicals of the year from 1955 and then every 10 years through to 2015 could be presented as part of the story. Thus, we were treated to songs from shows that included Les Miserables, Me and My Girl, Evita, Starlight Express, Chicago, Half a Sixpence, Hello Dolly, Charlie Girl, The Pyjama Game, Mack and Mabel, The Hot Mikado, Billy Elliot, Spamalot, Kinky Boots and the Back to the Future Musical itself!  The time-travelling also allowed us to meet Little Fred and Ginger (well-played by Johannes Lomas and Amelie Fairburn) and then Older Fred and Ginger (Gary Ibbetson and Sandra Mayo).

The show had a higher number of solos and duets than we may usually see from CLOGS due to the pandemic rehearsal restrictions, though this did not diminish the quality of the production – quite the opposite in fact. It would would be unfair to single any particular performance out as the overall standard was so high. There were some ensemble performances – a powerful rendition of ‘Cell Block Tango’, some fun in ‘Flash Bang Wallop’ and ‘I’m all Alone’ from Spamalot, a reworking of ‘Do you Hear the People Sing’ (post-pandemic!) and some great group singing in ‘The Rainbow Connection’ and the closing whole company number of ‘The Sun has got his Hat on’.

The Clogettes provided some additional movement and energy, with great movement and singing in big chorus renditions of Rocky Horror’s ‘The Time Warp’ (twice!), ‘Fame’, ‘Shine’ from Billy Elliot and ‘If Only You Would Listen’ from the School of Rock.

In general, the technical parts of the show ran smoothly and the Directors and Creative team should we well-pleased with what they were able to achieve in the most difficult of situations.

Thank you CLOGS for a great welcome back to live theatre and we look forward to your 2022 productions of ‘The Addams Family’ and ‘Annie Jr’ for the Clogettes.

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