Ghost The Musical

This was my first visit to the school, and I was made to feel very welcome.  As I waited for the performance to start, I studied my programme and I was very impressed to see the large number of students who were involved in this production.  Assisting with every aspect of the production, they made a positive contribution and it’s good to see young people being encouraged to participate in non-performing areas of the show.

The set was minimal, using just cubes and four doorway/arches.  It was very effective in this small studio space, and these were moved with efficiency, speed and precision by all members of the cast and some backstage crew.  Working in such a small space requires this precision and, because they were so effective (almost choreographed) the pace of the production never dropped.

Noah Wosahlo played Sam and he produced a very good performance.  A great characterisation, maintaining the character throughout.    Nice singing, he has a good voice which he used to great effect.  

The remaining principals were a split cast so, in the performance that I saw, they were all in the older age group and had a level of experience that was impressive. Daisy Loft played Molly beautifully, there was so much passion and expression in her performance and she has a lovely pure singing voice.  They made a good onstage pairing.

Ava Kelly played Oda Mae Brown with a different character than expected but very well performed.  She has fabulous facial expressions, very well suited to the close audience environment of this studio theatre.  She also has a good singing voice, particularly suited to the ‘belt’ style in which her songs are written.  Harrison Clifford-Simmons played Carl well, although I would have liked to see the villainous part of the character brought out more.  Harrison was a little insecure in his singing, I know it is daunting to sing with the audience sitting so close.

I loved the staging of the production; the clever use of the arches and cubes was very effective.  I particularly liked the use of smoke and lighting (designed by Ben Cronin) to make the body transitions, that was very effective and very smoothly done.  It’s not an easy show to perform and the cast and crew did extremely well in presenting it.

Choreography was very good, and the dancers were well drilled.  I just felt that they didn’t have enough room on stage to perform it to their best.  Maybe a few less on stage might have made it easier and more effective.  The ensemble cast were all strong and gave their all in their performances and there was some excellent backing singing happening off stage as well as on.  There were some very good individual performances, I would particularly mention the underground ghost (Annabel Goodbody) who was very scary!

Costumes were appropriate although perhaps a bit more attention to detail for the ensemble might be good idea.  If they are all in white, then they should not have black sleeves and black leggings on!  When the audience are as close as we were, every detail will get noticed!

Overall, an ambitious production which was very well performed and very well received by the audience.

NODA owns the intellectual Property Rights to the content of all show reports written by NODA Councillors, Reps and Assistant Reps.  

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.