Showcase Spring Concert 2022

As always, it was a privilege to be invited to attend and report on a Showcase performance, this time, it being their Spring Concert, held in the modern surroundings of the Music School of George Watson’s College in Edinburgh. Since 1991, Showcase have raised in excess of £200K for their chosen charity, Macmillan Cancer Support. Their donations are ever increasing, all raised in the way they do best – by singing.

From a chorus of 27, some 15+ stepped forward to take on a solo or duet, which must tell us something about the standard of the chorus. In a departure from my norm, I’ll start with the ever strong Showcase chorus!  The programme included a large number of choral items encompassing a wide variety of styles. Sources ranged from their opening number taken from The Greatest Showman, via West Side Story, to Dear Evan Hansen, Simon & Garfunkel and, including soloists, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and the Beatles.  “Hey Jude” which closed the Concert, brought back happy memories of my youth……..!  The Showcase chorus was sound and well-rehearsed by MD, David McFarlane, exhibiting excellent dynamics, as required on several occasions, by the broad spectrum of music chosen for the Concert.

Soloists were by no means any less worthy of praise. I will mention one or two which are chosen for the songs they were singing, and I should emphasize that if you were not mentioned individually, please do not feel you were in any way inferior – in fact, every one of you was absolutely superb, from the singers with years of experience to anyone singing solo for the first time. Keith Kilgour’s “Maria” was enchanting, as was “We don’t talk about Bruno” from Disney’s Encanto, where a number of soloists rose to the challenge of this difficult number.  Jacqui Mills gave us a fabulous rendition of Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”.   Andrew Edmonstone took the lead in “Close Every Door”, accompanied by the Showcase chorus, as referred to above. Kym Robertson, too, held the audience spellbound with “Someone Like You”.

All in all, a very enjoyable concert, put through its paces by the excellent production team of MD, David McFarlane, together with Accompanist Andy Thomson, and Director Andy Johnson who also compered the show with his own inimitable style of humour and wit!

Thank you again for inviting me to visit your show on behalf of your District 6 Rep Dorothy Johnstone – you missed a treat Dorothy!

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