The Ballyhoo Circus & Musical Showcase

St Philips Junior Workshop-The Ballyhoo Circus and a Musical Showcase.

St Philips return after losing their building under awful circumstances pre-Covid and then like most theatre companies, two years waiting to perform. With new premises they came out of the starting block with their youth show.

The first half of the show is The Ballyhoo Circus written by Mark Green and Directed by Adam Manning with Assistant Director Rachael Jackson. Set in a failing circus, the children of the circus acts try to think of ways to help keep it going. This is a piece that gives every character a chance to be involved. The characters were all dressed accordingly and it fitted with costumes by Mina Kirkbright, Olive Etchelles and Janet Davenport.

The cast were Kaitlyn Walker playing Maude Pipkin, Katie Highland as Troy Titan, Sophie Elliott was Tony (Antonio), Lacey Jai walker as ‘Dangerous’ Doris Clatterbourne, Jessica Bridge as ‘Fearless’ Florence and Holly Sessions as Anita. Some nerves were evident by touching hair and costumes a few times but on the whole the pure joy they had of performing was lovely to see.

Kylah Green took on the part of Henrietta - she looked splendid in her blue outfit and lovely to see hair in keeping too. Kylah was confident and gave a lovely performance throughout. Rebecca Jackson as Claude Pipkin strikes up a friendship with Henrietta in a bid to save the circus. Rebecca again was confident and mainly had to lead the show- one to watch out for - well done! Jess Fiddy was Humphrey Chuckles and had to put clown make up on on-stage with a little help – fabulous! Great character and delivering some old jokes was funny - have more confidence in yourself - well done! Callum Morris-Broome as Herbert the Escapologist who couldn’t even get out of his dressing room without help – hilarious! Beatrice Whitaker as ‘Mesmerising’ Mildred was a delight and lit up the stage - another one to watch - well done Cast!

The second half was a musical showcase with Musical Director Philip Harper who also played keyboard and J Whitaker on Guitar. Technical crew for the play and showcase was John and Janice Lyons. Choreographers were Adam Manning, Teresa Harper and Rebecca Jackson. Again, costumes were bright and cheerful with different coloured trousers and white t-shirts with coloured stars on the front. Songs from the musicals ranged from Annie, Bugsy Malone and Wicked to mention a few. The programme was split up into solos, duets and group numbers. With too many to mention I will just recall my group favourites were Revolting Children from Matilda and Stick it to the Man from Aladdin with lots of energy and For Good performed by Jessica Bridge and Kylah Green was beautiful.

Well done to Cast, Crew and Committee and it was so lovely to see you back at it.

Thank you from my guest and I for a lovely evening and hospitality.

 

Liz Hume-Dawson

District 5

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