Nativity

Sparkle and Shine was a title of one of the songs in this musical. Sparkle and shine were attributes that ran for the whole show from beginning to end. I am delighted to say that WMCS did not waste any time in booking this show once it became popular after its début in late 2017. The theatre has a seating capacity of about 550 and this was the number of people of who enthusiastically greeted the characters of this plot throughout a wonderful two and a half hour production. Even Father Christmas considered this an important place to be and made a welcome visit to the many children gathered there.

Desmond Poppy (Gaz Evans) was the narrator at first and then had a massive role, being in the majority of scenes and exciting the children to take part in the Christmas events at their school. The three persons that we were introduced to at the beginning were the school/college friends, Paul Maddens (Adam Knight), Jennifer Lore (Faye Reeves), and Gordon Shakespeare (Simon Newman). These four roles were integral to the main story and all played their parts with aplomb.

The two schools competing for first place in school nativity productions had an absolutely delightful group of nine children for one school and thirteen for the other. It was so lovely to hear their clear voices singing so many songs. Their acting and reactions to the ongoing happenings of the plot were so natural. The three parts of William, Star and Gabriel played their parts magnificently. All of the children’s costumes were first of all uniforms but as the school rehearsals continued, the glitzy outfits were quite spectacular in silver and gold along with traditional characters from the Christmas story.  Whist mentioning costumes, the second half commenced with a Hollywood theme and the adult  costumes were varied, imaginative and the characters portrayed were easily identified.

This is a first for me in that I can say that I could hear every single word, said and sung, as the balance between orchestra and singers was just perfect. Sound technician Bryan Mercer should be congratulated on this. The music provided by Nigel Newman and five others played for a large percentage of the evening including some apposite underscoring and providing accompaniment to the thirty plus songs in the show. All tuneful and sung meaningfully, especially for me the duet “Suddenly” by Paul and Jennifer.  

The set for Nativity was in essence very simple - just four sets of rising steps, two fixed at stage left and right and two centre stage -  moveable ones. When these were moved it provided a practically full lower stage and an upper area for some smaller scenes. Technology is brilliant now and the upper level was used to simulate the flying in a helicopter, show the top of the cathedral and also provided the effect of a moving excursion bus. The finale with fireworks and streamers was quite spectacular.  

Choreography for the large number of people on stage, especially in the ensemble songs, was expedited with ease and precision by both adults and children.

Congratulations to all involved - actors, musicians, the entire production team and all involved. This was a great team effort to produce a fantastic musical extravaganza.

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