Someone in the Crowd

Featuring a cast of fifteen talented singers, Festival Players provided an evening of entertainment of sterling quality. 

Devised and Directed by James Hayward, and under the musical direction of Ana Sanderson, an appreciative audience were treated to an eclectic mix of music with songs from a selection of shows from across the spectrum of musical theatre which more than showcased the talents of the cast.  The talent in the Band was pretty good too with Andrew Taylor and MD Ana on Keyboard, Oliver Fisher on drums and James Hayward on guitars.

The standard of singing and presentation was, at all times, of the highest quality, and the well thought out theme of the programme provided a good variety.  The little scenarios in each of the four sections worked well.

In The Commute we heard songs from La La Land, Merrily We Roll Along, Company, Chicago, Nine to Five and The Producers.  In The Audition shows included Copacabana, A Chorus Line, Smash, Cabaret, Funny Girl, and Greatest Showman.  After the interval we moved on to The College Years with songs from Mean Girls, Heathers, Wicked, Avenue Q, Carousel and Hairspray. In Date Night I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Les Miserables, Waitress, Hamilton, All Shook Up, Dear Evan Hansen and finally We Will Rock You.  I have to admit one or two of the shows from which the songs came were unfamiliar but a little bit of retrospective research solved that problem.

The Ensemble:  Damion Box, Michael Brum, Marie Buda, Philippa Clark, Catriona Clarke, Lauren Gonnella, Harriet Graves, Alastair Horne, Paulina Levin-Ander, Jacob Nightingale, Rosie Parrish, Seren Wilson, Simon Young, Magda Zun, tackled the programme with talented enthusiasm leaving the audience in no doubt that their enjoyment was also theirs.  In between the Ensemble numbers were a number of impressive solo performances.  In fact all had either a solo number or a duet. 

I saw the final performance of the tour and the evening had somewhat of a party atmosphere which was lovely.  The performances of Someone in the Crowd' on 23 February raised £1700 for Multiple Sclerosis research at Addenbrooke's and the Cambridge and District Group of the MS Society and on Sunday 24 February raised around £800 for the West Suffolk branch of The Samaritans.

Congratulations to Festival Players and the whole team on the success of the 2019 tour and thank you for an excellent two hours of quality entertainment.

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