Pop goes the Decades

This was not a very pleasant evening weather wise but the amount of warmth emanating from a packed theatre wasn’t surprising. As one would expect from a review there were some soloists who gave stronger performances and some numbers held more appeal for me than others so I am not going to list every song but pick out those that I considered very special. Whether they were a highlight for me personally is unimportant.  What is important is the pleasure they all gave to their audience, which was obvious from the start and the fact that so many individuals had an opportunity to show off their skills.  The work and effort that had gone into this show by the performers, back stage crew, costume department, lighting and sound was obvious.  The direction and choreography were interesting with lots of good ideas and the level and playing of the music was a delight. ‘Jailhouse Rock’ was an excellent choice to begin the show.  I noted the hair styles and costumes were perfect for the 1950/60s.  I really enjoyed ‘Blue Moon’. ‘New York, New York’ was very polished, ‘These Boots were made for Walking’  was superb, ‘Seven Little Girls sitting in the back Seat’ was clever and very humorous and ‘Puppet on a String’ was delightfully costumed.  What a pleasure to see such talented children singing and dancing so well.  Moving on to the 1970/80s we had the pleasure of seeing the children and young people perform some really good ballet and singing with confidence. ‘Puppy Love’ was enchanting.  My favourites from this era were ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon’, ‘I know him so Well’ and an excellent closure to Act One with ‘Amarillo’.  Act two introduced us to the 1990s to 2010 with a noticeable change in costumes, hair styles and shoes. I really missed the children in this part of the show but no doubt they needed to go home that bit earlier.  I was a little disappointed in Act two as it lacked variety.  By that I mean that some comedy numbers would have compensated for the lack of children and limited dancing.  However there were lots of excellent performances.  ‘You Raise me Up’ was one, ‘Unchained Melody’ was another and I loved the staging of ‘Uptown Girl’ and ‘Skyfall’. There was some great dancing and singing in ‘Can’t get you out of my Head’, the empathy between the couple singing ‘All of Me’ was tangible and the finale ‘Happy’ finished the evening off on a high.  I would like to mention the following for their excellent performances.  Luke Palmer, Martin Combes, Kelly Manchee, Tony Baker, Janet Webb, Lynne Jones, Irene Still, Charlotte Reader, Saksia Whittle, Richard Cooper, Georgina Combes, and Ian Sheppard.  Well done all.

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