Showcase 25

Overhearing words like awesome, amazing, fabulous, mind blowing, listening to cheering and seeing standing ovations absolutely sums up this Showcase extravaganza .The company who perform annually in the Church Hill theatre decided to move to the Kings theatre for 3 performances to celebrate their 25th anniversary of supporting and raising funds for MacMillan and played to almost full houses at each performance.
I hesitate to use the word ‘concert’ as this was a production the likes of which I’m pretty sure the King’s Theatre has never seen before. Current Showcase members were joined by past members and for the first time a Junior Showcase forming a company of over 100 past, present and future members on stage performing a spectacular virtually non stop 3 hours of song and dance. It was so good to see Bobby Harvey, one of the founder members of Showcase back on stage.
Andy Johnston and David McFarlane had together compiled a programme so diverse in its content representing a wide range of genre including rock, pop and musicals from the 60’s to the present day. So varied was the programme that it was for me an emotional roller coaster. David’s orchestrations and vocal arrangements certainly enhanced the talents of this most versatile cast and the choral singing was powerful and emotive. What a fantastic sound they made!
The first half took us through the decades from the 60’s to the present day with the chorus singing and dancing their way through ’Mr. Blue Sky’, ‘Real Gone Kid’ and ‘One Day Like This’ with vitality and vigour. The juniors then treated us to ‘Take That Medley’ which was performed with precision and enthusiasm. Louise Hunters ‘Someone Like You’ was a joy to listen to.
The musicals section was very moving indeed. ‘In His Eyes’ from Jekyll and Hyde was sung with great feeling by Arlene Cassidy and Kym Robertson. I have heard ‘This is the Moment’ from the same musical many times but never with such power and conviction as was delivered by Ibiyemi Osinake. This was hair raising stuff. Keith Kilgore put everything in to ‘Gethsemane’ as did Tanya Williamson in her heartfelt rendition of ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’. Cassie Dougal’s ‘Defying Gravity‘ was another show stopper with fabulous lighting effects..
’Amazing Grace’ with Ibiyemi and some junior pipers and a strong chorus ended the first half in style and by this time had the audience quite dazed at what they were seeing and hearing.
As well as serious moments, the evening was peppered with fun and humour. Keith Hendrie and the male chorus got the second half off to a lively start with ‘The Lumberjack Song’ while Craig MacBeth  led the male chorus in a hilarious version of ‘Like A Virgin’ with it’s fascinating choreography. The Queen numbers ‘Who Want’s to Live Forever’ and ‘Somebody to Love’ went down immensely well. Both Diane Scougall and Allie McMurchie have such powerful voices which almost raised the roof off the theatre. The elevated orchestra at the back of the stage was excellent and supported the company well.
As a past member I had the privilege of taking part in the final section of the evening and it was a real pleasure to sing alongside such a talented cast in ‘Barcelona’, One Day More’ and ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters’ The vocal strength and passion on stage was almost tangible.
While this was a musically outstanding ‘concert’ the staging and technical side was superb. A brilliant lighting plot was used to great effect while special effects and pyrotechnics enhanced the production making it a real spectacle.
The cast must also be congratulated for the sheer stamina that they had in learning and performing so many songs and dances with some energetic choreography to match the numbers throughout and the constant on/off stage changing costumes to suit the various numbers.
This exceptional evening was brought to a close with a very fitting ‘Something Inside So Strong’ followed by the rousing ‘You Can’t Stop The Beat’.
It is impossible to comment on every number but suffice to say that this was an amazing evening of wonderful performances by chorus and soloists many of whom might easily grace a London stage.
I greatly admire the dedication, commitment and hard work of everybody in the Showcase family in being able to produce a show of this standard. All involved enjoy music as a hobby but of course the important part is that this is all done to raise funds for MacMillan. To date they have donated over £220,000 and are hoping to reach the £250,000 mark as a result of their efforts.
Enjoyment on stage, an appreciative audience and raising money for a truly worthwhile and deserving cause. It doesn’t get much better than that.
This was a production with a real’wow’ factor.
 

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