Song and Dance

Ossett Youth Theatre will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year and having watched their latest production I can well understand how this company has done so well.
With a group pf youngsters aged 8 to 18 they really are a force to reason with. They performed a selection of songs from such great shows as Finding Neverland, Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat which was superb and featured Oliver Hornsby singing Close Every Door.
They followed with a number from Shrek, Freak Flag which was great and then on to Waitress which featured some great vocals from Kate Gleghorn with She Used to Be Mine, not an easy song but one which Kate gave an excellent rendition.
The Addams Family was another production this talented cast took in their stride which featured Emilya Owen-Herrera singing Pulled. The first half closed with a number of songs from Fame, The Musical and featured Chloe Jagger singing the title song, Elizabeth Drake singing Love Scene and the full company closing with Bring On Tomorrow.
Act 2 opened with an excellent selection from Oliver, Food Glorious Food, Where is Love sung beautifully by Mary Stones and Niamh Moore-McClosky and closing with Oom Pah Pah which once again featured Elizabeth Drake.
One of the highlights of the evening was a couple of songs from the hit musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, these were Spotlight and Don’t Even Know It which featured Oliver Hornsby who was superb especially when he entered the stage in full drag as Jamie does in the show.
Billy Elliot is another dancing musical which the company delivered with ease, they started with Expressing Yourself with Seth Ledgeway and Isaac Sugden, moving on was The Letter sung by Seth Ledgeway, Elizabeth Drake and Kate Gleghorn. Next was Electricity with Alfie Parkin, Isaac Sugden, Seth Ledgeway and William Newsome. Also joining them were dancers Kara Rys and Oliver Hornsby.
The finale was from The Prom which is a musical about a group of down on their luck Broadway Stars, from this Emilya Owen-Herrera delivered Unruly Heart and the full company came together for Time To Dance.
It was also a great pleasure to be able to award a 60-year long service Gold Bar with Diamond to Janet Lodge who I have personally known for around 45 years and who together with her daughter Sue Winstanley form Ossett Youth Theatre back in 2012.
Congratulations to everyone involved in this production and also to Janet on achieving 60 years in amateur theatre

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