Once Upon a time on Broadway

I wasn’t quite sure what songs I was going to hear; would they be old favourites, would they be from Musicals I may or may not have heard of, would I be too busy singing the songs in my head so that I wouldn’t listen to the singers.

Glancing through the programme I found that it was about fifty / fifty that I knew. What was also pleasing to see was that the theatre was pretty full and it was evident throughout the evening that the audience were enjoying themselves with the very high quality of singing. As this was a programme of 26 items, including the Entr’acte I’m not going to review each number otherwise this would be just a list.

From the opening number which featured the whole company one knew that this was going to be an evening of very good singing, although there were only six numbers that included the full company the dancers appeared in a few more. The vocals and harmonies with the company were all clear and easily heard, they must have been drilled by Marie. The movement and dance throughout had been well choregraphed by Danielle Shippey. I suppose of all their numbers I enjoyed Our House, Aquarius and Bring Him Home the best, probably because I knew those three numbers quite well, the Show Our House being a favourite of mine. I particularly enjoyed the dance set with ‘Over the Rainbow’ sung by Emma.

Not only was the choreography slick and well performed, the dancers’ led by Danielle brought some great movement and enhancement to the songs where they performed but they all smiled, this did show particularly where in ‘Someone in the Crowd’ the dancers were smiling but the singers weren’t. A choreographer friend of mine always told the singers and dancers Tits and Teeth (Chest out and smile). The costuming for all their numbers was very appropriate. I particularly liked the colour and style for the routine for Aquarius, I suspect the clothing may have been the individual choice of the company members (Billy?).

It was however the soloists that we all wanted to hear, there was hardly a foot wrong (Rob who nearly came on early) and the singing was superb, whether as a solo, a duet, the one trio and the foursome. I did wonder what happened in ‘Somebody to Love’ from We will Rock You, was it the music?

I could see that all the singers enjoyed their performances, you could hear it in their voices so in no particular order, Billy, Rob, LJ, Josh, Liam, Melissa, Emma and Sam a really big thank you for entertaining us so well. The songs were very well performed and brought out humour, tenderness and passion as required helped along by atmospheric lighting. The mix of voices and songs was well chosen by Musical Director Marie Cunningham although I wouldn’t have been surprised if some of the singers had said ‘I want to do that song’ I know I would have done. Talking of music, Marie had a very good band, the sound was really good and it was good that they had their own piece from ‘The Little Shop of Horrors’ as the Entr’acte to show off their talents.

This proved to be a very enjoyable and entertaining evening with wonderful talent, thank you for a great performance, well done to Rob, Marie and Danielle.

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