Once Upon A Fairytale

This was my first visit to The Seagull Theatre, and I could not have asked for a kinder,
lovelier welcome than I received by everyone connected to The Broad-Way Players. Every
single person that I spoke to was friendly, informative, and clearly enormously proud of this
lovely theatre group. The Seagull Theatre is a terrific venue, and I was shown to my seat by
a member of the front of house team; all front of house had entered into the spirit of the
production and were wearing costumes – a really nice touch! Another great touch was the
fact that a member of front of house came out into the foyer to speak to the audience with
relevant information. I honestly could not have asked for a friendlier welcome and your
wonderful attitude, kindness and generous hospitality really made my night – thank you.
As we were shown to our seats there was a real buzz in the hall. The hall itself was
approximately two thirds full and the audience clearly enjoyed the performance. The Broad-
Way Players featured a cast of over twenty talented performers of all ages, which was
wonderful to see. The audience were very engaged and clearly loved the show and
everything was applauded and cheered very enthusiastically!
The stage was used well, with characters entering via the wings and the set was effective
and emphasised a fairytale setting. Props were brought onto the stage as necessary by
backstage crew and cast members and scene changes took place fluently and seamlessly.
The sound effects and lighting were good and worked well. The music was provided by
backing tracks which had been chosen carefully to achieve a really high effect. All characters
could be heard at the back of the hall and the microphones worked very well indeed. The
costumes and make up were particularly good and every actor looked their part.
The casting of all the characters was very good and one of the major strengths of this
production was the fact that every member of the talented cast clearly enjoyed their roles
and wanted to be on stage; they all had incredible stage presence, and they acted, sang,
danced and reacted with a real love for this show.
The whole cast deserve praise for putting on a thoroughly high-performance show, with
everyone engaged, reacting and singing, acting and dancing to a high standard. The
Director, Sarah Meers, who was also choreographer and Musical Director deserves special
mention for orchestrating an excellent show, superbly set, and utilising the talents of a very
accomplished cast.
This was a terrific show and once again, I would like to thank The Broad-Way Players for
their kindness, their warm welcome and for a wonderful evening of first-class entertainment.
Well done to everyone concerned!

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