Songs from the Musicals

This concert was just up my alley as it did what the title said in giving us songs from musicals, some of which were first seen in the 1930s to those that are far more up to date.

We saw the last performance of nine which had been presented at Spotlight Theatre during the summer.  We were told that some of the regular performers were absent as they had returned to university but, in fairness, this didn’t spoil what was a very enjoyable evening.

Some of the shows incorporated were Barnum, The Lion King, Very Warm for May (I hadn’t heard of that Jerome Kern musical but it includes ‘All The Things You Are’), Wicked, Moulin Rouge and a selection of Andrew Lloyd Webber numbers.  Highlights for me were a super performance of ‘Stars’ from Les Miserables by Rick Windley who was also excellent with ‘Grow For Me’ from Little Shop of Horrors, a number that is rarely done in concerts.

Victoria Mitchell and Mike Sheldon performed a very good ‘A Little Priest’ from Sweeney Todd.  ‘Cell Block Tango’ (Chicago) was great as was Maggie Davies performing ‘When You’re Good To Mama’ from the same musical.

The cast sang very well with the Miss Saigon selection being super and I could have listened to more of the Lloyd Webber finale.

I enjoyed the choreography which was kept pretty simple so that it did not detract from the singing performances and the costumes were, as always, very colourful and effective.  There was also good use of the rear screen telling us what show each number came from.

The society can be congratulated on a super summer if all the shows were as good as this performance.

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