Dance the Night Away

This interesting concert was put together quite expertly to celebrate the memory of Dennis Royle, a stalwart of amateur theatre in the area and a cornerstone of the Pendle Hippodrome. I enjoyed the pleasure of Dennis’s wonderful company alas all too infrequently but can attest that he was indeed a true gentleman and would have been immensely proud and honoured at the musical feast served up in his memory. Grandson Josh Hindle and his partner in musical jollity David Smith put together a vivid and memorable display, with the irrepressible Howard G Raw pitching his commentary just right as our compère for the evening. 

Opening with a rather nice - and colourful - taster from the upcoming Youth Theatre production of ‘Annie’, the more mature members of the Hippodrome stormed the stage in youthful garb to give us ‘Food Glorious Food’ from ‘Oliver!’, the youngsters swapping roles with the adults to provide a comical twist. A rather out of season ‘New Deal for Christmas’, again from ‘Annie’, ended the lively opening section of the show. 

‘My Fair Lady’ was next with two excellent routines. ‘Wouldn’t it be Lovely’ fairly teemed with life and movement and sounded good too. The ‘Ascot Gavotte’ was then brought up to date with the inclusion of what seemed to be a rather excitable hen party which was an interesting touch! (Incidentally, just a reminder to any other societies who might want to present ‘My Fair Lady’ that Ascot is pronounced ‘Askut’ rather than ‘Ass-cott’: a petty point to mention here I know but it always rather irritates me!) 

Rodgers and Hammerstein was next up with two selections from ‘The King and I’: ‘I Have Dreamed’ and ‘Something Wonderful’. The duet was very well performed with a nice balance between the performers but for me, the standout moment of the whole concert was ‘Something Wonderful’. A great song which was performed beautifully and with a wonderful orchestral accompaniment, this really was something wonderful indeed: a very special musical moment to cherish. 

There followed an instantly forgettable little song from ‘Legally Blonde’ which was nevertheless very well expressed and the gentlemen really threw themselves into ‘Big Ass Rock’ from ‘The Full Monty’ to follow it. The boys clearly enjoyed themselves here and put a good deal of feeling into the performance. ‘Fabulous Baby’ from ‘Sister Act’ rounded off this section of modern musical hits and again, was performed with gusto: the tune is rather a good one and all in all, the Hippodrome regulars made light work of all the selections from these more contemporary shows which have proved popular with audiences.   

As if to prove that that the old ones really are the best, that old warhorse ‘Nothing like a Dame’ from ‘South Pacific’ was given an airing in a confident fashion and with a rather nifty bit of choreography too. Not quite up to the Morecambe and Wise level of acrobatics but very nimble nevertheless! To close the first half, another old warhorse of a tune was wheeled out, this time from ‘Les Miserables’. It’s at this point you’ll expect to read that ‘One Day More’ was the finale number but no! ‘Master of the House’ was the choice of Les Mis ensemble number to end the first half and proved to be a rousing way to bring us to the interval.

As this was very much an evening to remember and honour the memory of Dennis Royle, it was fitting that this charity concert included music from his favourite shows and a twinkling commentary full of anecdotes from Howard G Raw. Howard held the evening together well and his visits to the stage were always very well received, hitting just the right note. 

‘Be Our Guest’ opened the second half of the concert in a very colourful fashion before Howard gave what was almost a mini-concert all on his own with his barnstorming performance of ‘Betrayed’ from ‘The Producers’. ‘Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat’ was given a boisterous outing as an advertisement for the forthcoming Hippodrome production of ‘Guys and Dolls’ before two rather less edifying numbers from ‘Shrek’ and ‘We Will Rock You’ (high on my list of contenders for ‘the worst musical of all time’) brought us back up to date with the more modern musical world. A couple of songs from ‘White Christmas’ followed, then two numbers from the new Elvis musical (another one of those depressing jukebox affairs unfortunately) but one show which did surprise me - and pleasantly so - when it was presented at the Hippodrome a couple of years ago was ‘The Wedding Singer’, so it was nice to hear ‘Saturday Night in the City’ again. With this being an extract to bolster a concert programme, I wasn’t sure that we needed the water effect at the end of the song though: in the show, it advances the narrative but it doesn’t really have much to do with the song as part of a concert programme! 

‘Tell Me it’s Not True’ from ‘Blood Brothers’ was performed with a great deal of feeling and expression to take us up to the finale of ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ from Spamalot (the Hippodrome’s next production) which was a positive and heartfelt way to end the concert. The whole evening was a great tribute to Dennis and the music, movement, colour and confidence which bounced off the stage was a joy to see. Howard’s linking sections were entirely appropriate and accomplished and the choreography across the board was particularly impressive. The audience - and it was a full house - obviously enjoyed every moment: Josh and David should be immensely proud of all their hard work in putting together a great evening’s entertainment, all in a good cause. Many thanks for the invitation and the legendary Hippodrome hospitality and I look forward to my next visit as always.

 

 

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