Hot Box

I was kindly invited to the Hot Box, a fund raising concert from the promote section of Telford and District Light Operatic Players (working title TADLOP) as the Society raises much needed funding for its next production Guys and Dolls in April 2022.

This year starts a celebration of 50 years of the group and it was lovely to see that the charitable aims of ‘educating the public in the dramatic and operatic arts and to develop public appreciation of these arts’ was still as relevant today as it was in 1972.

The concert included songs from shows such as Chicago, Kiss me Kate, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Hadestown, Mame. The Wild Party, Guys and Dolls to name just a few.

The concert was staged at Casey’s a themed black and white venue that brings the 1920’s Ritz to a modern day marquee with a show biz twist.  Our host for the evening was the charismatic Alex Madden who, with his very tenuous links and dry wit led us through the evenings programme with numerous references to his stage wife for the evening Sammi McSporran.

Amelia Wildmore-Evans has a lovely operatic signing voice and is surely going to be one to watch in the societies upcoming production as she beautifully sang ‘If I were a bell’.

It has been encouraging to see performers such as Lucy Warrilow take more of a lead on singing solo and I particularly enjoyed her performance of ‘Bring on the Men’ from Jekyll and Hyde.

There were several highlights of the evening Jess Stevens, Amy Minshall and Debra Nimmo with ‘Hey Big Spender’ from Sweet Charity, Lyndsey Bird with her characterisation and accent for ‘If you got it flaunt it’ from the Producers, Sammi McSporran with ‘Gimme, Gimme’ from Thoroughly Modern Millie and Adele Clarkeson with a very adult version of ‘My Name is Tallulah’ from Bugsy Malone.

We were also treated to a glimpse of the societies October production The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ with ‘Rhythm of the Tambourine’ sung by the societies future Musical Director Siân Everett.

The evening was rounded off by the joyous Kurt Hassall and the entire company, as they gave us a rousing version of ‘Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat’.

Thank you for your kind invite and I look forward to seeing Guy and Dolls in April.

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