Hairspray

I have said it many times and will say it again; it is always great to see a group of youngsters enjoying themselves on stage whist at the same time providing first class entertainment for their audiences.

Hairspray is not an easy show to produce and perform as it covers many prejudices such as racial and those about weight, two, I am sure you will agree, very controversial subjects to tackle, but here we had a company who are not afraid of tackling such subjects and making people sit up and listen.

As we all know the show starts with Tracy Turnblad in bed and just starting to get up to face another day, on the performance I saw on the Friday evening it was Hannah Clapham who played Tracy and she was excellent, she was able to sing, dance and act her way through the entire show with ease and produce a great performance.

As this was to be the last show Steps would produce it had been decided to give as many members a chance to perform and therefore double up on the casting, a good idea which gives many more members a chance to shine in the final show.

Playing Tracy's long suffering friend Penny Lou Pingleton was Olivia-Jade Haslam who was perfect as the ever not-so-bright pal who always takes everything in no matter what is said to her. Olivia-Jade was perfect in this part and was able to give a very convincing performance and I am sure she will have got all her brains from her stage mum played equally convincingly by Cara Staniforth who once again was able to give a great portrayal of this character.

As we all know Tracy's mum, Edna Turnblad is usually played by a man, to be honest I am not sure why this is the case but in the film it was played by John Travolta and on stage it has been played by Michael Ball to name but one. In this production this part was played by Bradley Thornton who gave a sterling performance and was able to keep up the accent all the way through. Edna also has a husband, Wilbur, who runs a joke shop and as such is always trying to be the practical joker in the show, Martin Farthing again was able to show his talents off in this part and he and Bradley were able to bounce off each other. I particularly enjoyed their duet in the second half, You're Timeless To Me, it was superb.

Tracy is madly in love with the Corny Collins show, especially its co-star Link Larkin and here we had Aaron Wild once again proving what a great performer he is, his singing was perfect and as he said in his biog, if he chooses to take this up as a profession I am sure he will go far. In the title role in the show, Corny Collins was Adam Wigglesworth who seems to get better each time I see him, Adam is a very talented young man who is in great demand and I can understand why.

Also in the Corny Collins show is Amber Von Trussle a part which was played to perfection by Ellie Simmons who was able to get every ounce out of this part as did Gracie Malloy as her doting mum Velma Von Trussle, both these young women worked extremely well together to produce the pushy parent and spoiled child we all know and love.

I mentioned at the start of my review one of the prejudices this show covers is racial and as part of the black sector we had Sam Shirtliffe as Motormouth Maybelle, this is a big part, maybe not in terms of the number of minutes she has on stage but in terms of the character and here Sam proved herself times many especially when she sang I Know Where I've Been, this almost brought the house down and quite rightly so. Also in this family are Seaweed J Stubbs, the son of Motormouth and here we had a new member, Russell Taylor who not only looked every bit the part with his dreadlocks but was able to perform it well too alongside Eden Faith Phillips as Little Inez and other members of their family.

Mention must also be made to Hannah Courtney, Poppy Bridges, Rebecca Michie as Dynamite Special Ed and Jacob Skelly as Harrison F Spritzer and Sam Simmons and Mr Pinky, all of whom joined to make this a special show.

"Jo Sykes, NODA NE Youth Adviser who also attended this show was treated to a high energy performance on the opening night and saw the alternate cast members for those parts which were shared, Tracy, Amber and Link.

In the lead role of Tracy, Bethan Griffiths gave a confident and powerful performance, Sophie Haworth was great as Amber with some super comic moments maintaining her character throughout and Stephen Holman gave some great moves and musical numbers in his portrayal of Link.  Jo confirmed that the show was fabulous entertainment and that she really enjoyed the production.

Danyl James Turvey, Ash White and Matt Symonds must be very proud to have produced such a great finale to this society which resulted in a much deserved standing ovation the Friday evening, and I am sure Ashley Jenkinson. who this show was attributed to, will have been watching with a very large smile on his face.

Many congratulations to everyone involved in this very fitting finale to this great society.

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