Come to the Cabaret

The programme described this event as “An Evening of Song to Celebrate Musical Theatre “and what a celebration it turned out to be, with 11 junior members and 10 adults demonstrating their vocal skills. To assist in promoting a more relaxed and celebratory atmosphere a new style seating plan for the audience was adopted.  

Members of the Junior Players opened the proceedings; dressed and made-up as waifs they sang “Food Glorious Food” from the show “Oliver” during which they used their empty bowls to provide percussion, they then went on to perform other songs from this show. Next was a very confident rendition of “A Million Dreams” by Ella from the new musical “The Greatest Showman”. The music from “Hairspray” is very popular with young people so when they had the chance to tackle “Welcome to the 60s” and “You Can’t Stop the Beat”, they gave it their all.  

Next a change of pace with Carol Garford and Genevieve Stocker singing the lovely duet “I Know Him So Well” from the musical “Chess”. Then it was back to the Young Players and their performance of selection of songs from “Mary Poppins” which was a real treat. Sandee and Pete Lane performed a humorous dispute in song-“Anything You Can Do” by Irving Berlin from the musical “Annie Get Your Gun”. Then it was time for the return of the Junior Players to sing two delightful songs from “Snoopy -The Musical”, followed by a beautifully sung duet from Jackie Dodds and Genevieve Stocker, from The Lion King-  “Can You Feel The Love Tonight”. To take us up to the interval the full cast assembled on stage to deliver a selection of songs from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”.

Suitably refreshed, the audience, back in their seats, were ready for Act Two of this musical extravaganza, to be performed by the adult Players; it began with some stirring songs from “Les Miserables” which included “At the end of the day”, “Do you hear the people sing” and the comedy number “Master of the House”.  This selection was followed by songs from the musical “South Pacific” which unlike the 1958 film version that had many of the songs dubbed , these were performed live! Then it was Adam Thompson’s turn to sing “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again”, a great song from “Phantom of the Opera” delivered with style and confidence. There followed a change of tempo as the cast performed songs from “Rock of Ages” which included “We Built This City”,  “Harden My Heart” and “Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore”.

It was Louise Molina’s polished rendition of “Tightrope” from “The Greatest Entertainer” that led into a selection of songs from “My Fair Lady”; these were performed by the cast and included “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly”, “The Rain in Spain”, “Ascot Gavotte” and “I Could Have Danced All Night”.

Jackie Dodds and Sandee Lane sang “Last Night of the World” from Miss Saigon before they were joined by the cast to round off the show with songs from “Half a Sixpence” that included the title song and “A Proper Gentleman”, Money to Burn” and “Pick out a Simple Tune”.

This was great entertainment – no wonder the audience left the venue in a happy mood. The show was well lit and had good sound; it also had pace, colourful costumes and interesting choreography. The musical accompaniments provided by Andrew Clingo and Richard Greaves provided excellent support to the vocalists. My warmest congratulations to all who were involved in this production.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.