Movin' On Up

After a short technical issue, soon forgotten, WMTC hit the ground running with a stunningly good- looking opening called ‘Hooray for Hollywood’. A collection of songs from movie greats, ‘Get Happy’ by the girls was a great highlight. There followed the first of four contributions by the Harlequin Stage School entitled ‘I won’t Dance’, who were as one has come to expect, outstanding. In Act 2 they were presented to the audience wearing their medals from the Dance World Cup held in Portugal earlier this year when part of the winning England Team, and when interviewed by compere Steve Carley were a delight. Steve provided several of the links between sections and his presentation and I have to say occasional corny jokes went down well.

‘Let’s Dance’ the next musical section also looked great, dressed mainly in red. During this section the company was joined by children from Flyford Flavell Primary School / Claines CE Primary School who joined in enthusiastically and were a credit to their respective schools. Jacque Cook then presented a polished sequence taken from 11 Disney songs which was followed by a selection by Billy Joel, in which I particularly liked the quartet singing ‘The Longest Time’. After the next section from the Harlequin Stage School (‘More Friends Than You Know’) Act 1 was rounded off with ‘Seize the Day’ involving the company and children telling a story set in a Victorian winter with some dazzling numbers including from amongst others, Oliver! and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

A great opening section ‘Rock’ established Act 2 and this was followed by Ken Knight’s strong rendition of Flanders and Swann’s The Hippopotamus’, when the audience relished joining in the chorus with ‘Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud…’ A ‘Thousand Spotlights’ followed, which was a very slick section. The Harlequin dancers returned with ‘Heart Cry’ dressed in some fabulous red and black dresses and later with ‘Its Time to Dance’ which was totally uplifting. Between these two sections, the company presented ‘Northern Soul’ which included a great version of ‘Needle in a Haystack’.

The final section called ‘Carnival’ was a  colourful spectacle reminding us once again of the superb costumes, presented during the entire production, down to the finest detail including shoes. Throughout the production the movement and sure footedness of the whole company was excellent. The staging looked great and well-lit and the sound and off-stage band gave excellent support.  As well as Jacquie and Ken who presented named sections, there were a large number of other soloists too numerous to mention but all performed well. Show Director Val Knight and her section directors; Miriam Knight, Carlene Goggin-Jones, Ellie Bugg, Lucy and Russ Dudley and Bex Brown are to be congratulated on another polished first-class production.

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