Oliver!

This was the first major musical performed by MADS, since their formation two or three years ago. What an excellent job they made of it. It can’t be easy to stage a production of this quality in a school hall, but using the stage apron for their big production numbers and ensembles, as well as a lot of the scenes was very clever.

There were some lovely performances, but special mention must go to Kai Nicholas, playing Oliver. His acting and singing was outstanding, and his ‘ Where is Love ?’ was beautifully sung. There were no weak links among the principals. Michael Cairns was excellent as loveable rogue Fagin, his rendering of ‘Pickapocket’, and Reviewing the Situation were very good. Lynn Patton was a very good, suitably brassy Nancy, she acted and sang very well. Jonathan Patton and Chris McQuire were very good as the Artful Dodger and Bill Sikes, respectively, as were Terry Minter and Shelagh Cloudsdale as Mister Bumble and Widow Corney. All the other minor principal roles were well performed and it was clear that the choreographer had worked very hard assembling all the very good production numbers. Well done to the full company.

I felt the stage crew worked very hard to organise the scenes, which generally ran very smoothly, but a downside for me was the lack of lighting on the main stage , during a number of scenes, but they could only work with the facilities available I suppose.

Anthea Bremner led the orchestra well, and it really was a good, all round balanced show. Well done to all concerned, a very good first production from the society.

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