Mad About Musicals

This unusual ‘Songs from the Shows’ style show took as its theme  65 years of Tony Award winning musicals. Single songs from each show (not sequential in date) and several songs from two shows, were presented by an energetic company.  Dance featured equally with the singing and most of the cast moved in company numbers together with specialist dancers who featured in many solos and duets.

I have personal experience of putting together this type of show and know how difficult it is to get the balance right... Songs the audience will enjoy, routines that suit a mixed ability cast, solos for as many of the company as possible within experience and talent range. Choosing numbers that work well together can ensure a show flows smoothly and effortlessly, maintaining a good pace.

There were a few difficulties with this show. Many of the chosen shows, and thus the music were largely unknown to the mainly mature audience, and I will venture to say that they weren’t the most popular or well known songs from these shows. Songs like ‘Coffee Break’ (How to succeed in business without really trying) and ‘Swing’ (Wonderful Town), may have been terrific fun to perform, but taken out of the context of a largely unknown show, they meant little to the audience. After each number the continuity was interrupted by slide introductions (‘and the winner is’) which initially seemed like a good idea but soon became repetitious and intrusive to the performances. Unfortunately several soloists were quite out of tune and out of time which was uncomfortable for the audience.

The trumpeter in the orchestra found great difficulty in playing the given music and spoiled many solo items with inaccurate playing. Apart from this the orchestra played up beat and interesting tempos except for ‘I’m in love with a wonderful guy’ (South Pacific) which incredibly slow for a bouncy, fun and up tempo number. The solo piano accompaniment in several numbers was very good indeed.  The performances were generally enjoyable with ‘Stars’ and ‘Bring him home’ (Les Miserables) being outstandingly good. The costumes were attractive and there were an astonishingly large number of cast changes.  Although excellently costumed,  it seemed like over kill for several  numbers like ‘Phantom Overture’ where the company did little or no actual performing, although I must add it did make for attractive pictures on the stage.  The lighting was acceptable but there were severe shadows on stage left. The scenery was basic, rostra, platforms and stairs which enabled interesting pictures when placing the cast. The sound operator needed to follow the action more closely as there was much late sound (Microphone) entry when he didn’t know who was singing.  

But enough of the negative...The dancing and choreography was very good and added the necessary colour and interest to some of the numbers. The highlights of the show were a well dressed, decorative and well sung ‘Can you feel the love tonight’ (The Lion King), an energetic ‘Welcome to the Sixties’ (Hairspray). But a really great Kinky Boots finale, where the men really entered into the spirit of the show and looked fabulous and funny, funny was excellent. The energy and fun from the whole company from this short episode delighted the audience and was well directed and terrific entertainment. 

This was a brave attempt to ‘theme’ a show, which didn’t always work. But I offer my sincere admiration for the effort involved in the creation. Well done

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