Rhythm is gonna getcha

Looking through the programme before the concert started and seeing that there were fifteen items in Act One and fourteen items in Act Two I felt that by the end of the evening the ‘Rhythm’ was definitely ‘gonna get me’ and it certainly did! The four piece band was at the back and to the side of the stage and a lovely addition was the use of back projections. The ladies wore black with the addition of a vibrant pink corsage and the gentlemen were also in black with vibrant pink ties. I couldn’t possibly comment on each of the twenty nine items but they were all, without exception, worthy of praise. I will just therefore mention some of my favourite highlights. A very exuberant opening of Gloria Estefan and Enrique Garcia’s ‘Rhythm is Gonna Get Cha’ by the whole ensemble, set the tone for what was to come. Throughout, all of the ensemble numbers were beautifully and harmoniously sung, backed up with some excellently delivered dance movements. Among my favourites, and it is so hard to choose, were ‘Chasing Cars’ - Snow Patrol, ‘Africa’ - Toto (the rain effect was unbelievably delivered by the group) and The Beatles Medley - the slick way they moved from one song to another was perfection. There were some excellent individual and small group items. I loved Sharon Stringer’s singing of ‘Think of Me’ from Phantom of The Opera, Rueben Dykes gave a fine performance of ‘If I Can’t Love Her’ from Beauty and The Beast, ‘Once Upon a Time’ from Brooklyn was exquisitely sung by Stacey Hyndman aided by a super small backing group and what a wonderful delivery of ‘The Alto’s Lament’ was given by Sarah Jackson. There were two songs from Miss Saigon, firstly, ‘I Still Believe’ beautifully sung by Jess Hutton and Stacey Hyndman and a very moving, and truly heartfelt rendition of ‘Bui Doi’ by Andrew Buxton, he really gave it his all – superb. Jess Hutton sang ‘Your Daddy’s Son’ from Ragtime so expressively, Jen Lewis splendidly sang ‘With One Look’ from Sunset Boulevard, Isobel Davison and Lucy Taylor’s singing of ‘Flight’ – Sutton Foster, was very impressive and ‘From a Distance’ – Bette Midler was gloriously sung by Jen Lewis, Elizabeth Brookes and Sarah Stone. A real highlight was ‘At the Chippy’ – Victoria Wood, it was hilarious. The men’s take on ‘Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines’ was terrific and ‘Cell Block Tango’ from Chicago was sung and so suggestively danced by six very sexy ladies. Interspersed were four excellent items by the Junior Members of the Company. A Medley from Shrek, ‘Stick it to the Man’ from School of Rock, ‘Hold Back the River’ – James Bay and ‘Revolting Children’ from Matilda. Each item was so well sung, so enthusiastically delivered and so well organised in the effective movements that were performed, that they were all, just brilliant. The last item was a tribute to Terry Bailey who recently died and who for twelve years had been the Musical Director of the company. The choice of the five numbers was very appropriate especially the last one, ‘My Way’, because as it was said, he did do things ‘his way’. Together with some lovely photographs of him on the screen behind, it was indeed a wonderful and very moving tribute to him and he would certainly have been proud of you all. It was a sad note to end on but as they say, “The show must go on” and under their new Musical Director, Dave Adey and the Junior Musical Director, Jess Hutton together with the Production Teams, it most definitely has. This was a superb concert, the hard work from everyone that goes in to producing a show of this high standard was very much in evidence. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment, congratulations to everyone involved.

NB. I do hope that I attributed the correct names to the various items as only first names were given in the programme. If there is an error, I sincerely apologise.

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