One Brick at a Time

We were told at the opening of this show the idea had originally come from the Vicar at Wales & Kiveton Park Methodist Chapel to celebrate to 150 years since it was built.

The members of Wales Community Theatre Players agreed it was a bit of a silly idea but they were still up for it and am I pleased they did, it started with a play from the younger members written by one if their members, Sandra Kynoch, to depict what happened all those years ago. It was done brilliantly and used one set of youngsters as if they were in 1868 and the others as they are today, there were some good comparisons with the “today set” showing total disbelief that somebody should walk more than 50 yards to get to the chapel let alone school.

Following on from the play we were treated to a veritable feast of solos, duets, quartets and full company numbers ending with the epic number from Barnum, One Brick at a Time.

I mentioned the solos and these were excellently delivered from such stalwarts as Ashley Booker with This is The Moment, What I did for Love by Scarlet Buxton, I Don’t Know how to Love Him from Abby Philips and one of my favourites, I Will Always Love You from Alison Wade.

As well as performing in the play the youngsters were also in fine voice when they sang Bad Guys and Fat Sam’s Grand Slam from Bugsy Malone and they were able to deliver this in style much to delight of the audience.

A number I had not heard before was Greater Than Gold which was sang by the full company with solos from Nerissa and Kathryn Jordan, this was nothing less than beautiful.

The first half was brought to a close with a selection of songs from Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat featuring Alison Wade, Ashley Booker, Dave Froggatt and Daniel Schofield who did a brilliant portrayal of The Pharaoh.

Throughout the evening we had a quartet enter the stage who were able to sing hits from the West End show, Hamilton, a beautiful rendition of Blackbird, Bui Doi from Miss Saigon and Bring Him Home from Les Miserables. These were all delivered acapella and with such professionalism and style they almost brought the house down. In the programme they were listed simply as The Four Players but who were Joseph Bairstow, Daniel Schofield, James Moore and Dave Froggatt.

In a totally different style the full company gave us Black Hills of Dakota from Calamity Jane followed by Whip Crack Away sung with great skill by Lucy Hayes, this young lady not only has a fine voice she can also put a song over to give it the best effect, I am sure she will go far.

The penultimate number from the entire company was One Day More from Les Miserables and this was superb ensuring the full audience went home with the sounds of the chorus ringing in their ears.

Congratulations to Alison Wade, Jayne Lemm, Sandra Kynoch, Graham Cowley on keyboards and everyone else involved to give us this wonderful evening’s entertainment.

 

 

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