Heroes & Villains

I’ve often thought that the task of preparing a “songs from the shows” production can be challenging as far as knowing what to include and what to leave out from the vast number of items available. Giving a production a title might have made things slightly easier in that some songs would fit into neither category, so restricting choices, but most stories have both heroes and villains in the plot and so I’m not sure that such a title does in fact offer all that much help.  

What was special in this production was the rather eclectic choice with several items taken from some very recent shows.  “Pretty little dead things” from “Paddington, the Musical” is perhaps the most up-to-date and Cath Hopkins gave an excellent explanation of her liking for the work of the taxidermist, especially where Peruvian bears were involved.  She had earlier encouraged us not to break the rules (“Catch me if you can”).  “Cell Block Tango” (“Chicago”) was well performed by six young ladies describing their methods of despatching their respective victims and it was refreshing to see their different take on the number, rather than simply a copy of the familiar Fosse style.  Three of them returned shortly afterwards with a song from “Shrek the Musical – “I know it’s today”.   Adam Stewart found a very striking but appropriate costume in which he enthusiastically encouraged us to say his name (“Beetlejuice”), after which Emma Hoekstra gave us a song from “Heathers”, “I say no”.  The first act had begun with the entire cast on stage with “Goosebumps” but any nervousness suggested by that title was well-hidden as the production progressed with its very slick sequence of songs. The familiar “Master of the House” (“Les MIserables”) ended the first act in boisterous mood with Nick Sephton and Lucy Shore leading the way as the Thenardiers, the former having already impressed in a duet with Henry Fairnington –“Confrontation” from “Jekyll and Hyde”.

Sophia Razak opened the second act by reminding us that “No-one mourns the wicked” (“Wicked”) before Chris Sykes left us in no doubt about “Why we build the wall” (“Hadestown”) with a strong performance of the song. More familiar items saw Kevin Claxton “Reviewing the situation” (“Oliver!) with a good performance of the song and a duet from “The Phantom of the Opera”, (“All I ask of you”) nicely sung by Jean-Francois Andre and Jenni Peat.  It’s over 10 years since “Hamilton” first took the stage and Kieran Farrell warned us that “History has its eyes on you” from that show before taking up his guitar to accompany Jess Roy and Jean-Francois Andre in “Now and for always”,  a lovely folksy number from “The Lord of the Rings: a Musical tale”.

The stage here is quite small and so occasionally use was made of the side aisles to accommodate more voices. On stage itself were a number of pallets (did they also appear in “Guys and Dolls” last year?) but the cast moved them around to provide different shapes to support their performances.  

I feel I can do no better than to quote Sophia Razak’s programme note in which she says that “in a production like this, we get to explore a vast array of shows in one evening” and she adds that the director “had a clear vision to move beyond the typical cabaret”.  That vision certainly came to fruition in a splendid, entertaining production by this group, which has attracted several new members in recent years and it has been a pleasure to see it go from strength to strength.        

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