Centre Stage Diamond Edition

This was to celebrate 60 years of COS. My congratulations to you all on what has been achieved over the years: You should all be so proud. Right from the very start the evening rose to great heights of enthusiasm, and the company just exploded into action of song and very fast and slick choreography, what an opening. Sadly I have no names for the soloists so I can only comment on the various numbers without actually knowing who the performers were. ‘One Brick at a time’ from Barnum was very cleverly choreographed with so many children joining in followed by some great tapping to ‘42nd Street’ and the costumes were spectacular.  In fact the costumes were great all the way through and so many changes the cast must have been exhausted by the finish. I’m surprised that they put them on in the right order!!  I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Just Arrived’ from Copacabana with clever use of suitcases followed shortly by ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ superbly performed by the entire company.  This was followed by ‘Matchmaker’ delightfully sung by 3 children and then treated to two gay, clever numbers from Hamilton, a show that I have never seen. I must comment on three very talented people, the first a youngster singing ‘Maybe’ from Annie and the other two were ‘A Couple of Swells’ who would have given Judy Garland and Fred Astaire a run for their money. The first half finished with ‘I’ve Got Rhythm’ which was certainly the case with this talented society.

Act two started with a bang with the cast reminding us that ‘Diamonds are a girl’s best friend’ followed by ‘Let me be your Star’ most beautifully sung and costumed.  Everyone loves The Witches of Eastwick and ‘Look at Me’ certainly cemented that feeling for me and was cleverly followed by ‘The Letter’ from Billy Elliot performed in a most moving way designed to bring a lump to the throat which was rapidly dispersed by the entire cast singing ‘Ain’t it Good’ from Children of Eden. This was followed by an excellent solo from The Addams Family. Seven well clad and beautifully harmonised ladies sang ‘Broadway Babies’ from Follies and shortly after that we were treated to ‘Seventeen’ from Slice of Saturday Night.  The evening was finished off with a flourish by ‘Dancing in the Street’, not literally, from Motown.  Everyone involved in this great evening’s entertainment should be very proud of their efforts.

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