"Now That's What I Call Cabaret 25

There are pros and cons about putting on a cabaret.  On the plus side, you can decide what songs you want to include.  On the other hand, how do you pick from the thousands available?  You can more or less choose which of your cast should sing them.  There again, the Director’s choice of performer might not include your longest-serving member who has always wanted to sing his/her own favourite, thereby providing a potential source of conflict.

Thankfully, there were no signs of the latter here as all and sundry, audience included, seemed to be having a wonderful time.  The problem of choice of material was partially solved by restricting the programme to songs from the 1960s onwards, although that still leaves an awful lot.  Most of the numbers were performed by a small group, a trio or duet but two of the three sections opened with choral versions of well-known songs, thus providing an opportunity for all the cast to be involved and for us to hear some excellent harmonies.       

The song “I will follow Him”, was one of these and, in view of its origins in the early 1960s, prior to its reincarnation in “Sister Act”, was perhaps the oldest song of the evening and so an appropriate opener, following a few words from the comperes Peter Fletcher and Andy Mee.  We moved on as a duet of Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” was followed by a Beatles tribute by four gentlemen in “Twist and Shout”.  I was impressed by the attention to detail as the Paul McCartney look-alike did indeed use his left hand to strum the guitar. Billy Ocean’s “Love Really Hurts Without You” was followed by a Supremes medley well-performed by an excellent trio of ladies. The first section closed with a medley of songs made famous by that well-known Swedish group.

The show continued with the comperes reminding us of the humour of the two Ronnies before the choir gave us a version of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”.  Duran Duran’s “Hungry like the Wolf” followed before Andy Mee, having donned a red wig and mackintosh, as in Rick Astley’s YouTube version, told us that he too was never going to give us up.  A small group asked us to recall the “Summer of ‘69” as did Bryan Adams not quite as long ago as its title suggests.  In contrast to its own title, Heart’s song “Alone” provided another opportunity for a duet before the section ended with Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer”.

Having had two intervals in which to replenish their glasses, it was perhaps no surprise that the audience became much more animated in the final section.  The choice of music here also encouraged their participation with a spirited version by some Village People from Tadcaster of the favourite “Y.M.C.A.”. Thereafter it was back to the 1960s as Peter Fletcher followed Frankie Valli and Andy Williams in confessing “Can’t take my eyes off you” before two crowd favourites at sporting venues “Hi, Ho, Silver Lining” and “Delilah”, ended the show.

Throughout the evening the words of the songs were projected karaoke-fashion on a screen at the back of the stage in an effort to encourage the audience to join in. I must confess that in some cases this provided me with my first experience of some of these words. Andy Lloyd had been largely responsible for putting the whole thing together and his fine singing voice had been used to good effect in various items, none better than in this Tom Jones hit which ended the show. The words might now be seen to be dark enough to have the song banned from Welsh Rugby stadiums but nothing could detract from our appreciation of the excellent performance here.

In fact, the whole evening had been a most enjoyable experience with most of the audience on their feet singing and dancing in the aisles by the time we were treated to an encore by the hard-working cast. It was all reminiscent of our NODA weekends at Bridlington and I made a note to check that I could still fit into my dinner suit in time for this year’s event, now only a few weeks away.                                        

 

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