Movies & Musicals

The concert this time, in the comfortable ambiance of Arley Kings Village Hall, featured a varied selection from popular films and musicals, enabling full ensemble and solo performances. As usual the choir were smartly dressed in black with red scarves for the ladies with matching ties for the gentlemen. The opening sequence was a rousing Best of Bond medley of six familiar tunes, followed by ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’ from ‘Shall we Dance’ and then the ‘Theme from New York, New York’ performed with some nice light and shade.

Jane O’Meara sang ‘Send in the Clowns’ with sensitivity and ‘The Wind Beneath my Wings’  had a serene quality about it which I enjoyed. This was followed by ‘There You’ll Be’ from ‘Pearl Harbour’ with Caroline Worthington singing with great feeling. ‘Hallelujah’ from ‘Shrek’ was beautiful with soloist Steve Worley and the final number of some choral highlights from ‘Enchanted’ was very strong.

The second half of the concert opened with ‘June is Bustin’ Out All Over’ from ‘Carousel’ with some nice harmonies and Jenny Parsons hit all the tight notes with ‘I Could’ve Danced All Night’ from ‘My Fair Lady’. A medley from ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ had an eerie quality about it with a worthy contribution from Sharon Toy and ‘When you Believe’ (‘Prince of Egypt’) was a stirring number with Alan Savage and Sue MacAskill as soloists.

‘Seasons of Love’ (Rent) that followed also contained some lovely harmony and the closing medley from ‘Les Miserables’ provided a beautiful conclusion to the concert with solo contributions from Phil Smith, Pam Craven, Mary Sinclair, Caroline Worthington, Alan Savage, Gwynneth Savage, Penny Bowden, Teresa Crane and Gary Talbot. – albeit the very final number was an encore from ‘June is Bustin’ Out All Over’.

Once again, the musical director and accompanist were in the capable hands of Bradley Barlow and Angie Allard. Thank you for the usual warm welcome. The choir now exceeding 50 singers goes from strength to strength and I look forward to the next concert on 29 June.

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