Summer Holiday

The story of Don, his bus mechanic friends and their eventful journey through Europe in a converted double decker Routemaster bus is packed with the hits of Cliff Richard and the Shadows, ensuring that Summer Holiday is a definite feel good musical.

In the lead role, and following in Cliff’s footsteps, was Gary Hoyle who gave an assured performance as Don with good vocals. He portrayed the natural leader of the group of friends with confidence and believability. His fellow mechanics played by John Williams (Cyril), Steven Lauder (Edwin) and Michael Tait (Steve) were convincing as a group of close friends all with different personalities, their camaraderie was tangible and they all gave strong vocal performances. The boys meet a girl group on their travels and offer them a lift when their car breaks down; the girls played by Gaynor Lewis (Angie), Emily Hardey (Mimsie) and Abi Foster (Alma) gelled well as a group and their numbers and harmonies were very good. Jaimie Donkin as the runaway reluctant singing star Barbara, who also gets a lift from the boys along the way, gave a good portrayal of her character ensuring there was contrast between Barbara and her alter ego Bobby; her vocal performance was also very good.

As Stella, Barbara’s stage mom from hell, Rachel Duncan gave a super performance. She was suitably overbearing and domineering in her pursuit of Barbara. Stella’s sidekick and manager Jerry was played with great comic ability by Graham Duncan. It is the first time I have seen the role played with Gerry having a Spanish accent but it really worked. The scenes involving these two characters were real audience pleasers with good comedy touches.

There were only 18 people in the entire cast so the supporting company worked very hard filling all of the minor roles as well as providing support in the company numbers; I would make special mention of Jake Marshal as the Bridegroom, his vocal performance was beautiful. The band was very good and gave an authentic feel to the music and all of the musical numbers were performed with full commitment and lots of energy.

The authentic looking set, as well as good lighting and sound all added to the overall enjoyment of the production. Congratulations to everyone involved for a very enjoyable evening’s entertainment.

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