The A to Z of Musicals

I never know what to expect when ask to review a performance from Phoenix Productions, their artistic Director Richenda A Blakelock always thinks outside of the box with her creative direction and this year’s concert “The A to Z of Musicals” was no different. The concept of two friends; Richenda A Blackelock and Sarah Taylor sharing an evening’s entertainment playing a board game where on the throw of a dice the players move around the board landing on squares associated with theatres in the West End, the game was full of interesting facts both on the theatres and the musicals performed with the cast performing a musical number from the show.  I thought the concept was brilliant and quite ingenious and the fact that the board games which was custom made for the production for me took this concert to another level, maybe Richenda should consider look at patenting the game, I think this would be extremely marketable.

Congratulation to Rebeka Hunt as the choreographer supported by Richenda and Emma Salmons who created the stylish dance routines and movement of which enhanced the musical numbers and were well performed by the cast. Costumes were well put together both in style and colour thanks to Catherine A Blackelock, Carol Hackers and Anita Phillips, enhancing the performance as was the lighting and sound created by Duncan Baxter and Elliot Nelson.  The set looked fantastic and it proves that you don’t need to spend a great deal of money to make a big impact, loved the idea of handing photo’s of cast members and shows combined with the lighting it looked very professional, and finally a big thank you goes to the front of house team who always makes me and the audience feel very welcome.

The performance started with a fantastic opening dance routine from Annie the musical “Hard Knock Life” performed by Beth Collins, Rebeka Hunt, Jessica Smith and Lauren Willis beautifully choreographed and an excellent start to the concert.   Moving through the alphabet there were some great performances and musical numbers I loved “Locomotion” from the Carol King musical Beautiful; great costumes and beautifully sang by the whole cast, Hayley O’Connor delivered a stand out performance of “I’m Here” from The Colour Purple. Courtney Knight delivering a beautiful rendition of Nothing Short Of Wonderful” from Dogfight an outstanding performance which was  beautifully delivered. Jessica Smith delivered a comprehensive dance routine to “Drum Crazy” from the iconic musical “Easter Parade” which was followed by Beth Collins singing “Maniac” from Flash dance supported by Courtney and Jessica who delivered a high energy dance routine authentically dressed in leg warmers. Lauren Willis sang a great musical number “I Say No” from the rock musical Heathers; superb vocals and a well-designed dance arrangement. Courtney Knight took on the role of Cinderella to deliver the beautiful number “On The Steps Of The Palace” from the fantastic musical Into the Woods with lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim, loved this number great interpretation and beautifully delivered. The tempo was lifted with Richenda A Blacklock, Kimberly Dunn, Rebeka Hunt and Hayley O’Connor delivering the fantastic number “December 63” from the musical Jersey Boys. The letter K brought the audience a dance routine from Kiss Me Kate followed by two musical numbers with the letter L; first from one of my favourite musicals based on the novel by Victor Hugo; Les Misérables a beautiful duet performed by Courtney Knight and Hayley O’Connor to the musical number “I Dreamed A Dream” well sang and beautiful harmonies, the second was from the musical Little Shop Of Horrors; with a well choreographed and beautiful sang title number. Strong performance to the title number from Nine to Five with solos from Hayley O’Connor and Courtney Knight with the cast delivering a great choreography dance routine. There followed a beautiful Lyrical dance routine by Beth Collins and Rebeka Hunt from the classic musical written by Lionel Bart; Oliver and to conclude Act One we were transported to Australia’s outback with the full ensemble singing and dancing to the musical number “Venus” from the musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert a perfect ending to an action filled Act One.

Act two opened with Lauren Willis delivering a confident and well polished musical number “It’s a Fine, Fine Line” from the Musical comedy Avenue Q; Letter R gave us the full ensemble singing the number “Monster Mash” from the jukebox musical Return to The Forbidden Planet great musical number from this musical based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Singing in the Rain is a great musical and I wasn’t surprised that it appeared for letter S with Kimberly Dunn, Emma Salmons and Lauren Willis singing “Good Morning”. Beth Collins delivered “Nutbush City Limits” a very energetic musical number and dance routine from the musical Tina, fantastic characterisation and delivery, Up on the Roof tells the story of five university friends who form a cappella singing group; Richenda A Blackelock, Kimberly Dunn and Rebeka Hunt delivered a lovely number “Love Will Keep Us Together” from this musical, V brought us the unmistakable number from the musical Viva Forever written by Jennifer Saunders this jukebox musical based on the not so popular musical with songs from the Spice Girls, the songs are iconic and  in the A to Z of musicals Beth Collins, Courtney Knight, Emma Salmons, Jessica Smith and Lauren Wills delivered a brilliant all dancing all singing rendition of “Who Do You Think You Are”. W brought us the song “Home” from the 1975 musical The Wiz; performed by Hayley O’Connor fantastic vocals this young lady and beautifully delivered, X brought us a lovely dance routine from the musical number Xanadu from the same musical. Y brought us Young Frankenstein; with Emma Salmons and the cast singing and dancing to the musical number “Transylvania Mania” great number well sang and a good choreographed routine and finally as the players ended on the Z square which was aptly named the Olivia Square and to conclude the game of which the winner receiving an Olivia award the cast played tribute to the musical Zombie Prom with Kimberly Dunn and the full ensemble singing “Good As It Gets”.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

This was an exceptional performance, well directed by Richenda and the production team and the whole cast seemed to enjoy themselves and deliver a superb performance, Well done to everyone at Phoenix Productions and thank you once again for the invitation and great hospitality.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.