Old to New

For my first venture out in 2025, I had the pleasure to attend the KODS Youth Section with a concert of ‘old’ musical numbers through to some ‘new’ ones. Opening the show Chris Kemp sang  ‘Oh What a Beautiful Morning’ from Oklahoma tunefully, whilst walking through the audience with confidence and this was followed by the company singing ‘Farmer and Cowman’, with gusto, also from Oklahoma. Roxie Jordan then sang ‘Winnie Foster’ from Everlasting? with great expression and Charley Smith’s number ‘Gimmie Gimmie’ from Thoroughly Modern Millie was also very good.

Charlie Dancyger and Myles Richards sang ‘Doing it for some Doll’ from Guys and Dolls and they were good ‘movers’ too! After the girls sang ‘Just arrived’ from Copacabana, all 12 lads sang ‘Nothing Like a Dame’ from South Pacific. A great line up. Larna Richards singing ‘Nothing’ from A Chorus Line was impressive. Immy Maybury and the boys sang ‘Another Suitcase’ from Evita well and there was some fine dancing during ‘Boogie Shoes’ from Saturday Night Fever, with Myles and Logan Vospar leading the number with the girls.

Charlie did well with ‘Baggy Trousers’ from Our House  and after Harrison Bianco sang ‘Leaning on a Lamp’ from Me & My Girl well, the first part concluded with an upbeat ‘Anything Goes’ from the show of the same name.  The staging was simple with a good star cloth at the rear of the stage and loads of colour and variation added from some suitable good-looking costumes throughout.  

Part 2 opened with a full company number ‘Stars Look Down’ from Billy Elliot, with stirring sincerity. After several well led numbers that followed; ‘Happy, Sad’ from The Addams Family (Danny Duffy), ‘When you’re good to Mama’ (Molly Strong), ‘Razzle Dazzle’ (Billy Brooks) both from Chicago and ‘Unruly Heart’ from the Prom, led by Shannon Drew and Leo Hyde, we learned that both Shannon and Leo were soon to leave KODYS. I wish them well.

Lilly Hickman then gave us a well-choreographed and accomplished solo dance with some good attack with ‘One Night Only’ from Dream Girls and there were some slick moves in ‘One Short Date’ from Wicked that followed. ‘For Good’ also from Wicked, sang by Roxie and Larna was lovely and bright.

Immy, Darcy Hill and Shannon rocked their dance routine ‘Proud Mary’ from Tina and Leo returned to sing ‘Michael in the Bathroom’ from Be More Chill, with feeling and sensitivity. One of the most striking numbers was ‘Welcome to the Rock’ from Come from Away, led by the company principal singers, which was followed by the full company finale medley.

The links between sections were covered by some introductions from the company. The concert provided a  great range of musical numbers, backed by a mixture of piano played by Russell Painter,  and recorded music. It is clear that as the group moves forward there are some maturing performers for which the company and its production team should be congratulated.   

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