Summer Concert

It was great that on a Saturday evening towards the end of lockdown I was invited to watch an online show performed by Woodseats MTC, and what a show it was, from start to finish it was pure magic with some exceptional performances.

Woodseats are no strangers to producing online shows, during the past 15 months in fact they have done quite a few and I have been honoured to have been invited to see several of them. This one was viewed by 36 screens many of which had two, three or four people watching.

This show had a technical team of Adam Walker and Georgina Willows, not an easy feat when you are unable to meet up with your cast and all performances are socially distanced, but they did it and it worked perfectly.

The show was hosted by Danielle Victoria and Dan Powell who proved to be an excellent double act from the word go, feeding off each other with quips and comments.

The show opened with From Now On from The Greatest Showman and featured the full company, who, as I said earlier had to perform individually to the backing track and then all the videos put together to make the final cut which was done extremely professionally.

There followed various solos, duets and groups, George’s Prayer, sung by Adam Walker, I Know Him So Well by Mary Newey and Joan Ellis, Go The Distance from Hercules, sung by Dylan Lambert followed by Larger Than Life by Adam Walker and the full company, all being delivered superbly and forming the first part of the concert, entitled General Knowledge.

The concert was split into five parts, after each of which the hosts asked questions relating to the songs which had been sung.

The second section was called Keen Eye and viewers were asked questions about each video which were not always what you expected.

This section included Without Love from Hairspray by Ben Bason, Jacob Boulton, Becki Stowe and Emily Briddon, this was followed by Balancing The Scale sung by Tara Kultbatski, Becky Jones and Jessica Anderson. Finally, we had Fine Life from Oliver by Georgina Willows, Eleanor Albones and the company, again all the songs were given the justice they deserved and enjoyed by everyone.

Section three was called Gender Reverse where members sang songs which we usually expect someone of the opposite sex to sing, up first was Raise A Little Hell from the mucsical Bonnie ^ Clyde by Abigail Oldfield, Jessica Anderson and Tracy Elliot, usually sung by Trooper, an all-male band, Dylan Lambert delivered an excellent There Are Worse Things I Can Do from Grease and as we all know was sung by Stockard Channing in the film. Quickly following on was Tara Kultbatski expertly singing You’ll Be Back from Hamilton and normally delivered by King George 111. We then had an excellent Phantom in the guise of Mary Newey singing Music Of The Night from The Phantom of the Opera. This section closed with Adam Walker and Georgina Willows who gave a great rendition of High Enough, again, a series of questions followed from the hosts.

We were then treated to a section called Odd One Out which included Bad Cinderella by Lilli Connelly, Opening Up from the hit musical Waitress, sung by Abigail Oldfield, Eleanor Albones and Emily Briddon, who delivered some beautiful harmonies, next we had Sincerely Me from Dear Evan Hanson sung with gusto by Ben Bason, Jacob Boulton and Adam Walker. Another Day was beautifully sung by Jacob Boulton and Lilli Connelly this was followed by Candy Store sung by Becky Jones, Becki Stowe and Eleanor Albones, all the songs were well delivered and received with great enjoyment.

The final section of songs was under the umbrella of Show Stoppers and started with an excellent rendition of This Is The Moment from Jekyll and Hyde by Jacob Boulton followed with Life Of The Party from the film Wild Party and beautifully sung by Georgina Willows. The penultimate number was December 1963 from The Jersey Boys and delivered brilliantly by Adam Walker, Dylan Lambert, Jacob Boulton and Ben Bason, had this been on stage I am sure they would all have been doing the moves to go with this number.

The show was closed with a song from their 2022 production of The Wedding Singer, It’s Your Wedding Day by the full company, if this is anything to go by the show will definitely one to see next year.

The amount of work which must have gone into this production has to be enormous not only by each induvial member but also by the directors, the hosts and the technical team putting it all together.

Thank you very much to everyone involved in this show and a big thank you for your kind invitation.

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