Platinum

It was the members’ own idea to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Youth of Banbury Operatic Society (YOBOS) with a concert, rather than a party or an outing.  Of course it was.  These young people were clearly born to perform on stage, and the quality of the production that they were able to present after just a long weekend of intensive rehearsal was truly remarkable.  If there was some measure of quality of outcome as a function of rehearsal time then YOBOS would be top of the charts.  The members are helped immensely by having dedicated and experienced creative and production teams to support them.  The Director, Musical Director and co-Choreographer packed the content into an ambitious and varied programme, and the production team ensured that the concert looked and sounded good throughout.

The first half was subtitled “The roles we’ll never play”, which confused me for a while as there is no call for these talented youngsters to place limits on their ambitions.  It soon became apparent that the theme referenced the fact that the girls got to sing roles more usually sung by boys, and vice versa, an excellent idea that worked really well.  The second half comprised popular favourites from Musical Theatre with more conventional casting.

The evening closed with a medley of songs from past productions, with some former members of YOBOS returning to reprise their roles in shows such as Bugsy Malone, Little Shop Of Horrors, Grease, Rent, 42nd Street, Legally Blonde and In The Heights.  The evening closed with “You Can’t Stop The Beat” from Hairspray, a sentiment that the audience would have heartily endorsed as they gave the company a much merited standing ovation.

The Youth of Banbury Operatic Society are the current holders of the London Region Youngstars Award, and deservedly so.  “Platinum” was a joyous celebration of twenty years of YOBOS – here’s to the next twenty!

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