Copacabana

Given the fact that the Society recently came close to going out of existence, it is to their credit and the hard work of the committee, led by chairman Jane Pritchard, that the company bounced back with Barry Manilow's musical, Copacabana.
And congratulations to the Society for tackling what is a relatively big and quite ambtious show with such a predominately young and largely inexperienced company.
The show revolves around the imagination of an aspiring songwriter Stephen/Tony (Andrew Lockwood - no relation!) who attempts to create a 1940's-style show about a young unknown singer, Lola La Mar (Rachel Clegg), who goes on to become the star of the famous New York Copacabana club.

The two (inevitably in good musical tradition) fall in love, only to be parted when rival nighclub boss Rico Castelli (David Slattery) drugs and kidnaps Lola for his Havana club, the Tropicana.

Tony and Copacabana boss Sam Silver (Leigh Brown) fly out to Cuba to rescue Lola, and of course, everything eventually ends happily.

Particular praise has to go to Rachel for her portrayal of Lola/Samantha, with a strong singing performance, allied to her bubbly character, and some pretty nifty footwork thrown in for good measure.
She was ably supported  by Jane Pritchard as the ageing Samba star Conchita Alvarez who delivered a lively opening to the second half along with Anna Tiffany as Gladys, the former Copa girl with a heart of gold.
Andrew made a good fist of the hefty dual role of Tony/Stephen, although at times, seemed to struggle a little with self-confidence, maybe not helped with a some quick costume changes, while David was a suitably menacing Rico, the gangster turned club owner.
There was further solid support from a confident Leigh as Sam, the less-than heroic boss of the Copacabana club.
Unlike the newspaper reviewer I felt the dancers, under the guidance of choreographer Christina Jagger, lent plenty of colour to what is fundamentally a show about music and dancing, while I also felt the band, under the direction of Jon Wilby never overpowered the performers.
Good lighting and scenery added to the spectacle (perhaps a bit too much smoke at times, and the occasional hiccup with sound) put together by director Martin Saxton.
My main criticism would be there was occasionally a lack of self-belief by a number of performers, and occasionally some dodgy accents. But I'm sure given more time and the benefit of more experience, these problems will be resolved and the Society can look forward to bigger and better things to come.

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