Spotlight 23

Spotlight 23

Ellesmere Port Musical Theatre Company

4th May 2023

The Gladstone Theatre was the venue for E.P.M.T.C third year for their concert Spotlight, what a wonderful evening’s entertainment. With a cast of over thirty extremely talented players, we were treated to a menu of incredible songs from our most popular musicals.

As we all know a show is said to be set by the opening number, filtering in from three separate aisles the full company sang Circle of Life from The Lion King, what a wonderful welcome to what was to be an exceptional evening’s entertainment.  In the programme Pam Watson, Chair of E.P.M.T.C praised the Director/Musical Director Liz Legerton for her dedicated hard work to this production, also Choreographers Gill Watson & Emma Humphries. Congratulations to all.

Praise must go to the costumiers, Pam Watson, Gail Roberts, Laura Souter & Marj Cooper for the excellent attention to detail amazing costumes, extremely well done. Congratulations also to the unsung heroes of lighting and sound, Derek Bosely for an excellent job.

We were treated to a wonderful mix of well-known shows in act one: Lion King, Grease, Sweet Charity, My Fair Lady, Sound of Music, South Pacific, Mary Poppins, Kinky Boots and Hairspray were joined by the more contemporary Six, Everybody’s talking about Jamie, Dear Evan Hansen and Come from Away. We were then treated to an amazing medley from the magnificent musical Les Misérables, with full company with solo’s from Emma Ray, ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, Liv Hanrahan, ‘Castle on a Cloud’, Chloe Ratcliffe ‘On My Own’ and Mike Jenkinson-Deakin the enigmatic ‘Bring him Home’.

The wonderful hypnotic notes of the iconic ‘One Day More’ rang out, we were joined on stage by Jean Valjean Mike Jenkinson-Deakin, Marius Joe Mears, Cosette Amy James, Enjolras Kyle Hickman, Avert Callum Eaves, Eponine Chloe Davies, Madame Thenadier Jenni Mattison and Monsieur Thenadier Glenn Jenkinson-Deakin. They were all truly marvellous, such commitment, an appreciative audience leapt to their feet it was an extraordinary memorable moment.

At the start of act two the full company filled the stage for the song, ‘The Rhythm of Life’ from Sweet Charity. The eclectic choice of musicals continued, Billy Elliot, Chess, Cabaret, Spamalot, the inclusion of the newer productions Back to the Future, 13 and Little Women went down well with the audience. As a Carole King fan, the Carole King Tribute including the classics One Fine Day, Chains and Will you still love me Tomorrow was a delightful unexpected treat. Then we had the unbelievable medley from Jersey Boys, exceptional performance from five talented young men.

What a finale, ‘Time to Dance’ from the musical The Prom, so full of life and energy, it was an absolute joy, full company everyone on that stage enjoyed the experience and it showed, what fun they had.

It is impossible to identify an individual performance with a show like this; the quality and variety of the songs they covered both well-established show favourites. and the new breed of musical was exceptional.

Thank you EPMTC for a truly entertaining evening

I look forward to next time.

Joanne Rymer

NODA

District 4.

 

 

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