Blitz

This company has to stage its productions in a school lecture theatre and they manage to transform it to great effect for their shows. The set was inspirational in the way that you felt immediately you were in part of the London. Underground, dark and dismal with a haze of smoke to add to the atmosphere.
The Band was ingeniously placed in the middle of the set  in an underground of its own I did think at first that this might be an intrusion on and a distraction from the acting, but not a bit of it; it worked extremely well.
Mrs Blitztein was on stage practically the whole time and portrayed her East End Jewishness very convincingly in her mannerisms and accent, although sometimes a little difficult to understand. Her musical numbers were sung with a great deal of conviction and a good strong voice. Alfred Locke did a great job, his cockney accent gave him the strong character it needed for this part, I particularly liked “Tell Him, Tell her” it was skilfully done. Carol and Georgie made a great couple and complemented each other to perfection, their love for each other shining through the family arguments and rivalries. Harry the” ducker and diver” came over very well and I especially liked “Duty Calls”. Elsie was very vibrant and a great character “Leave it to the Ladies” was real good fun. Ernie Nearmiss gave a warm and funny performance, adding humour to some tense situations.
All the above ably supported by the rest of the cast, who looked right for the period and acted their parts with conviction. Everyone put their all into the show and the Children’s Chorus nearly stole the show. The poignant evacuation song “Going to the Country” and  the amusing  “Mums and Dads” musical number were sung with gusto and every child knew the words, you could see they were loving every minute of it, well done. The costumes looked very authentic and as always every member of the cast, principals and chorus stayed in character whether centre stage or not. Congratulations for the good effects that CODS are noted for, the post bombing fireman scene was particularly well done.
The Orchestra sounded really good and not intrusive; they did a very good job, under the MD Simon Carter. Sarah Carter can be justly proud of giving the audience a great production of “Blitz”. Again Congratulations.

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