Comrie Cabaret 8

Once again, I find myself attending Carnoustie’s annual Comrie Concert, No. 8, this time, on behalf of my NODA colleague Gordon Smith. This show is staged in the Society’s rehearsal hall, which is turned into a mini theatre for this fund-raising variety show. Having attended for the last three years, it still does amaze me how they manage to stage it at all! The stage is awkward shaped but, believe me, they cope no bother at all to present their show with consummate ease. How they manage to do all their stage moves on this enclosed space beats me! This year the show opened with the dancers giving a quiet opening dance, quickly followed by Irish jigs, which transformed into a full rousing Irish musical selection sung by the full company in fine chorale voice. We had “Lord Of The Dance” and that old favourite “Danny Boy”. Then came a little chaos as several members attempted to sing “Hallelujah” (the wrong version!) at different moments in the show, only to be given their marching orders by the MD. Finally, we did get the full company singing the correct “Hallelujah” number. There then followed “Bat Out Of Hell” with several songs apt to that as well. Two male members then gave a powerful rendering of “Starlight Express” and then came the surprise of the night. I cannot mention the name because the show programme did not announce who performed what but, suffice to say, the lady who performed “The Alto’s Lament” literally brought the house down! She performed a song saying she was a soprano, but was having to sing the alto line and, as she sang the many well-known musical songs, she had to end the song singing the (un-tuneful) alto line, thus giving her no chance to sing the favourite melody line! This was a wonderful comedy break. As I also find with variety shows, there is always the obligatory “Les Mis” song, this time sung by two young girls. Because of safety in the “theatre” hall, the show does not have an interval and was staged as a complete performance but, in order to raise the necessary funding for the society, there was the mandatory prize raffle. The lights came up and a well-known society stalwart stepped forward to present the prizes! Here was, indeed, an act of great spontaneous comedy for, completely “off the cuff”, and much enjoyed by the audience, the prizes were eventually handed out to great mirth and delight!  Finally, to celebrate the society’s 30 years in their rehearsal premises, they ended up with a great selection of songs from past musicals they had presented over these years. This was greatly appreciated by the audience because, from where I was sitting, I witnessed many of the audience’s feet tapping along, in enjoyment, to the songs being performed. Yes, a successful night for the society.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.