Dazzle!

This show was new to me and I found it highly enjoyable and entertaining. “Dazzle!” is a traditional style musical written specially for children and young performers.  The story is simple and tells of a group of fairground folk and their efforts to save their Dazzle Bay Fun Palace from the people who want to turn it into a shopping complex.

This performance by the society’s children’s group, S.P.O.T.S., was absolutely excellent with some super performances from the youngsters, full of infectious enthusiasm.  You could almost feel the adrenalin and, in a compact theatre, it was lovely to watch the whole cast working together to make sure they were a success.

The central character is Poppy Pringle who inherits the funfair from her father, Fred.  Poppy was delightfully played by Lucy Dickinson whose delivery was strong and the presentation of her songs very good.  She also moved nicely.

Andrew Studholme played Fred and he has a good stage presence and a lovely voice which is maturing from his earlier treble into what I’m sure will be an equally good adult version. Ellie Taylor-Lamb was a lively Flossie Candour and, in a show where girls played some of the boy’s parts, Fern Berkley was very effective as Skimpy Dingoburger who has a soft spot for Poppy.

The baddies were made up by four characters Murgatroyd Megarich (Sebastian Carvill-Belt), Primula Clackett (Amy Gollop), Sterling Squeamish (Melvin Wright) and Sarkky Cutter (Sarah Birkbeck).  The required comedy was well extracted by all four, attracting loud boos from the appreciative audience.

I was very impressed with the strength of the supporting cast, many of whom had lines, especially Emily Clarkson and Jade Shelton as police officers.

The songs, with keyboard accompaniment, were very good, some of them not easy, and some hummable as we left the theatre.  The choreography was effectively simple and everyone did it with smiles on their faces.  Costumes were bright and colourful and the set excellent.

The whole show was a great credit to the cast and the entire production team.  Congratulations.

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