School Of Rock

‘School Of Rock’ was a first for me. I had never seen it before and knew nothing about it, but oh what a baptism to this show. Not an easy show to do but the whole production blew my socks off ! Huge congratulations must go to the production team of Ian Walker as Director, Damien Bell as Musical Director and Jessica Mellows as Choreographer plus credit must also go to Ian Coley as Stage Manager. Everything gelled so well together and I liked the use of the LED scene sets which helped make the changes seemless.

 All of the supporting characters, teachers and parents too numerous to mention played their parts well. I am not sure what superlative to use for the children but needless to say they were all outstandingly wonderful. They were so well rehearsed and their energy was infectious and I could not fail to mention the talented musicians of Zack (Hugh Ryan), Freddy (Jared Farmer), Lawrence (Finley Christian) and Katie (Kate Gibson) all playing live on stage, plus the singing and acting talents of Summer (Isabelle Small), Tomika (Dusty Wheeler) and 9 year old Billy (Toby Mellor). Also in the category of singing and acting talent was headteacher Rosalie Mullins (Emma Oates) who gave an excellent characterisation. Everyone of the youngsters onstage were outstanding especially considering their ages and were supported by a wonderfully talented leading man in Dewey Finn (Jack Hodgson) who absolutely lived this part which was huge both musically and physically but was carried off brilliantly. A truly outstanding performance with great energy and magnetism and one which the youngsters fed off like a sponge.

I really could not fault this show and I cannot praise the production team enough with so much hard work done to achieve such a wonderful high standard all round. I had an exceptional evening. Congratulations Phoenix Theatre Company on an excellent production and I shall look forward to the next one. 

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