So This Is Christmas

Having visited AMCS, I now feel in the Christmas spirit. The stage was beautifully decorated and welcomed the audience into the setting for their latest concert.

The first half gave us songs with a Christmas theme from musicals/films you would not necessarily associate with Christmas. It was a very pleasant change to listen to songs that perhaps would not appear in your traditional Christmas concert. True, there were selections from Annie, a Christmas Carol and Elf but also Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher from Billy Elliot and Christmas is my favourite time of the year from Catch Me If You Can. The show was linked by Grandma, played by Helen Bodley, telling the children about her experiences of performing on stage, this was nicely done, and the children reacted well to the stories she told.

There were some confident solo performances from Chloe Robinson, Kiki Bradford, Michael Mannion and Richard Beckett, I also enjoyed the duet Beauty and the Beast, sung by Charlotte Mannion and Helen Jolly, the number giving us a reminder of Musicals week on Strictly! The strength of the company is certainly in their chorus numbers, their harmony singing was very secure and nicely balanced. Mention must also be made of the choreography, Nickiy Critchley and Chante Williamson had obviously worked hard to put together effective dance routines and these were well executed by the ensemble, I was also impressed by the movement of the children’s chorus, there was a wide range of ages and abilities and everyone moved confidently, some with the ‘Ah’ factor!

The second half treated us to some Christmas classics, Peter Brown’s rendition of I’ll be home for Christmas being one of the highlights. Once again, I was impressed with the junior section’s performance of the 12 Days of Christmas, I had not seen it performed like that before and found it very entertaining. Finally, we had the traditional carols, I know some of the audience wanted to join in and were looking for a song sheet in the programme.

Overall, there were some lovely ‘pictures’ on stage and the company knew exactly where to be to create the effect, it is always difficult with concert material not to just stand and sing the songs, so this was well directed by Charlotte Mannion and the end product had the desired effect. The whole programme was very well accompanied by a competent combo in the orchestra pit, the arrangements were once again very effective and did not overpower the vocals at any time, congratulations to Mark Bayliss for his guidance of both the company and the band.

So I now feel it is time to put on my Christmas jumper, get the mulled wine bubbling away and put on a Christmas film, thank you Aldridge for putting me in the mood for Christmas and congratulations to all involved in this production.

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