From Hollywood With Love

From Hollywood with Love was the title of Spennymoor Youth Theatre Group’s 2018 concert, performing to a packed town hall this talented group certainly displayed their unique skills and talent and under their Director Louise Defty’s leadership this group has gone from strength to strength. Louise is one of the most committed and enthusiastic directors I have come across and her commitment and passion for this group of youths is evident whenever you meet her and she shares their passion and  drive to do well and this was clearly observed in their performance. Music was provided through backing tapes; the sound was good as was the lighting which added to the performance both of which was provided by Bob Harbisher and Alex Snaith. Congratulation to the set designers as it certainly added to the atmosphere and made the show look very professional as did the range of costumes all individual for each number and looked incredible thanks to Margaret Thompson and Sandra Welsh. Choreography was both slick and polished curtsey of Holly Welsh and Megs Defty and not an easy tasks due to the amount of numbers in each act and the different age ranges and abilities of the cast but each performer looked comfortable and made the routines  look easy, well done to you both.

The well designed programme of musical numbers and dance routines was well put together and certainly had something to please the audience the opening number “Spread the Love All Around” introduced the cast to the audience the soloists in the number Megs Defty and Charlie Jackson delivered a confident performance to this energetic number from the hit musical Sister Act and it was clear that the audience from their reaction were going to both enjoy this concert and support the cast which was clear by their reaction, excellent costumes and great energy. Charlie Jackson and Lilly Anderson showed us how to “Bend and Snap” from the musical Legally Blonde, great routine which was followed by Millie Cowan, Amy Gatland and Evie Stephenson singing “Let it Go” from the musical Frozen, lovely number and well delivered, I loved Olaf. Liam Etherington and Megs Defty delivered a polished tap routine to the Irving Berlin number “Stepping Out With My Baby” which was quickly followed by the title song from the musical 9 to 5 with soloists Jack Cole, Charlotte Robinson, Freya Graham, Isabelle Monahan, Scott Anderson and Zac Greenman again a great choreographed routine by Holly Welsh this senior group certainly work well together and the delivery was well executed. Oliver and Charlie Best delivered an audience pleaser with their number “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story I loved the costumes and nice vocals coming through well done to you both very nice routine, Jack Cole and Brandon Sherrington gave a good rendition of “Something about this Night” from Finding Neverland accompanied by dancers Megs Defty, Charlie Jackson, Millie Cowan, Amy Gatland and Millie Newham, lovely modern style routine with good clear vocals. The whole cast gave a incredible performance to the music “Ghostbusters” great interaction and delivery with even ghosts in the audience this was followed by Georgia Holmes and Natasha Witton sing “What is this Feeling” from Wicked again well delivered and confident vocals, the seniors next took to the stage with “The Bellas Final Performance” great routine and lovely vocals great chorography from Megs Defty,  one of my favourite numbers in the first act was the juniors singing “Raindrops” lovely to see so many young people really enjoying themselves and putting their heart and soul into this number, to end act 1 the group sang the powerful number “Season of Love” from the musical Rent, I loved the spots on the principals this added to the performance  fantastic ending to act one and well delivered.

Act two opened with a flash of red and white as the cast delivered the high energy musical mega mix from High School Musical great routine, excellent costumes full of vigour and liveliness, this was followed by a beautiful number from the Little Mermaid as Chloe Armstrong sang “Part of This World” confident performance from this young lady as she commanded the stage adorned in her mermaid costume. Holly Welsh set a beautiful routine to J’ai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire well danced and the costumes looked great and very professional, the next musical number is one of my favourite songs from Wily Wonka and the Chocolate Factory “Pure Imagination” sang by Faith McDemott this was a lovely number and confidently sang, we were off to Austria for our next number from the musical Sound of Music, as Darcy Gallone, Megan Jones, Millie Newham, Sophie Priestly, Imogen Smith, Gini Stephenson and Charlotte Robinson sang the iconic number “So Long Farewell” great interpretation and well acted and sang, Megs Defty sang the beautiful number “Hallelujah” this young lady has excellent vocals and a confident stage presence she delivered this number with lots of emotion and feeling and I love the gauze it looked fantastic adding to the whole performance, a number from the Rocky Horror Picture Show was next as the seniors took us to Frankenfurter’s home to join in on a very special occasion as the group took us through “The Time Warp” very entertaining and confidently delivered, this was equally followed up with the juniors singing  “Hakuna Matata” from the Lion King  great characters and well sang lots of immerging talent coming through in this junior section. Zac Greenman and Charlie Jackson delivered a classic duet from Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves “Everything I Do” a well delivered number and nice vocals, well done to Charlie I love the lyrical dance that accompanied this number. To conclude the concert the whole group delivered the beautiful number written by Gary Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber ”Sing” for the 2012 common wealth games this was a perfect finale with soloists Sophie Priestly, Bethany Wanless and Megs Defty a perfect and moving finale number to round off this fantastic concert.

It has been an absolute pleasure to witness this group go from strength to strength the camaraderie between the performers is exceptional they support each other and share in their achievements.  Well done also to Georgia Anderson, Jessica Burdon, Rachel Clayton, Ben Colledge, Robyn Diaz, Louis Fordham, Scarlett Licence-Iverson, Skye Monahan, Patience Ritchie, Lauren Wakes, Hailie Warren, Evie Wakes, Tamsin Tyra- Wilson, Naomi Ritchie, Lola Punshon, Amy Lowes Ava Davison, Millie Copeland, Ben Clayton, Charlie Barker and Neve Anderson their contribution to the performance was outstanding. Congratulation to everyone on another great performance cant wait to see you all in Sleeping Beauty.  

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