Nativity! The Musical

The three friends were captured perfectly. Mr Maddens was played by Nick Bright who showed perfectly both sides of his character. The warm and endearing side until his girlfriend Jennifer left, then he became the disillusioned teacher, demonstrating his frustration at having to direct the Christmas Nativity with the help of Mr Poppy. 

Gordon Shakespeare, Madden’s 5-star review rival, was played brilliantly by Jonny Buxton. His darkly dramatic and over the top ‘baddie you love to hate’. His vocals in “Herod! The Rock Opera” were superb.  

Jennifer Lore was played by Charlotte Bedford and showed us her lovely sweet and gentle character. There was a beautiful vocal rendition of Wrapped in a rainbow between her and Maddens.  

The role of Mr Poppy was played by Michael James, who also acted as the narrator at the beginning of the show and got the audience involved right from the start with his childlike exuberance and energy. His interactions and scenes with Mr Maddens were faultlessly performed. His opening song “Very First Day at School” in the scene with the children was excellent and extremely funny, well sung and the choreography was well designed. 

Mrs Bevan was wonderfully played by Ashley-Marie Stone. Patrick Burns was played by Ross Howard who gave us some masterful facial expressions. However, stealing the show were the fantastic cast of children portraying the pupils of Oakmoor School and St Bernadette’s. Each of them gave strong individual singing, dancing, funny one liners and with some amazing facial expressions and the characters were brought to life well. I also want to mention another show stealer, Cracker who was played by Star. She behaved perfectly throughout, and I hope she was rewarded with extra treats. 

Simon Lambert created a great set with a central set piece which was used for school settings, Hollywood with projected screen, offices and the impressively decorated Cathedral. Additional parts of scenery and props were thought out well and moved around the set by the players and stage crew. Most scene changes were well carried out with efficient speed, unfortunately a couple of times these were slightly longer and louder than they could have been. The lighting design by Josh Blows was excellently executed and enhanced the scenes. The live orchestra were expertly led by James Green, the sound quality was good and didn’t overshadow the vocals. Costumes were well sourced.  

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