Miscast - A Cabaret

To celebrate their 40th anniversary Chester le Street Theatre Group decided to perform a concert in the style of the “Broadway MCC Theater Miscast Cabaret”. As director Rebecca indicated in her programme notes, this gives performers the chance to sing songs from roles they’d never normally play due to age, gender or opportunity.

The cast of 17 talented performers delivered a varied programme with an enthusiasm and passion that was palpable, you could tell that there are strong friendship bonds in the company and that everyone was completely comfortable and supportive of each other.

The stage lighting was sympathetic to the numbers and complimented them well and the sound quality was good. Staging of the numbers was done using moveable rostra used to good effect positioning cast and incorporating its use into the choreography. The choreography was well suited to the numbers, interesting to watch and very well executed by the whole cast. Chinami, a one woman orchestra, perfectly accompanied all of the numbers proving nonstop musical support across the programme..

Rebecca as MC introduced us to content that was diverse and incorporated many musical theatre greats delivered with a twist including songs from Rent, Les Miserables, Wicked and Chicago. In a company based concert like this I don’t like to single out performers as everyone gave their best, there were some beautiful solos and duets but in my opinion the men stole the show with their “Cell Block Tango” (sorry girls!), the choreography in the tango was impressive. The compilation items of “Overdone Duets” and “Songs We’re Too Old to Sing” were excellent and very funny.

There was certainly plenty to keep the audience fully entertained and indeed wanting more at the end. Congratulations to the whole team on a super evening’s entertainment.

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