The Little Mermaid and Cats

Dear Riverside Juniors,

Thank you for inviting me to come and see your lovely production of The Little Mermaid. I adore this show, so I was very excited to see you all perform. As you all came on stage your costumes were super - bright and colourful - and I could tell from your clever outfits who you were all playing. As a group all together you looked wonderful and I can see that lots of hard work had gone into your costumes. I particularly liked the big fat tummies on Scuttle and the other seagulls!  

You opened with Fathoms Below, which is a really tricky song - “from whence wayward westerlies blow” is not easy to say, let alone sing, so always make sure that you really use your words and pronounce everything clearly. I’m sure your teachers, Rowan, Emily and Ellen have told you about diction - and it’s important to try and remember all of things they tell you, even when you are perhaps feeling a bit nervous on stage. 

Another thing to think about is your projection. Remember where your audience is. This can be hard when you have a thrust stage and people are sitting on three sides, but do try to speak up when you have your back to someone, it can be really tricky to hear you otherwise - and we don’t want to miss out on what is happening in the story.

Special mentions go to Beth as Ariel - you had a lovely singing voice Beth! Be confident and fill that big space on the stage by standing tall and proud and looking up to the audience - this will make your performance even better that it was! Also, Lily as King Triton - you were very confident and had great diction and projection, well done. Isabella as Sebastian the crab was lovely, nice and loud and a strong performer - just slow down your words a bit so that you can really put some extra expression into them, but a super job Isabella! Daniel as Prince Eric, you were great too! I loved your dancing, especially when you were dancing with Ariel and you sang nicely too. And Rosie as Grimsby, what great characterisation from you - keeping Prince Eric in check and making sure everything was in order - well done!

More great performances from Sophia as Flounder, Emily as Scuttle, Ella and Cosmo as Flotsam and Jetsam (you two had great fun playing the baddies!) and Olivia as Ursula the sea witch. Olivia, you had a such a lovely singing voice - now take it further and really think about those lyrics. I’m sure you can be nastier, more sarcastic, even more evil to make that performance really stand out - don’t be afraid to really go for it!

I loved the scenes with Ariel’s sisters, the Princesses, mermaids and mermen. You all did a great job and it was lovely to see you all having a good time on stage and enjoying yourselves with some super dance moves. Make sure you all look up and out to the audience so that we can see those smiling faces and hear your beautiful voices! Elsa, you made a lovely Carlotta and had great stage presence, especially in the finale scene. Isaac as the pilot and Katrina and Isabelle as the seagulls were all fab - and I liked all of the extra sea creatures, such as the dolphin, the clown fish, the sea horse and the lobster! Even an anemone - and that’s not an easy costume to find! 

The unexpected star of the show was Zach as Chef Louis! Well done Zach on a brilliant performance - you had the audience in stitches as you sang your solo, chopping up little fishies and chasing Sebastian around the stage. What a great scene - really good fun! I also really enjoyed Under The Sea, this scene looked fabulous and had everyone clapping along - well done!

Congratulations to everyone involved and I can’t wait to see your next show. Keep up the good work Riverside!

Dear Riverside Seniors,

Well, when I heard that you were doing Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, I did wonder how you would manage it! Cats is such a difficult show to do - there are so many wordy lyrics to remember, as the full  company are on stage for the vast majority of the performance, not to mention the challenging choreography! How could a youth group even begin to tackle such a mammoth project?

As you opened on Jellicle Cats I knew that you had all nailed it! Wow - what a fantastic opening set, great energy throughout this long number and you made a beautiful sound together - really lovely! As this scene rolled in to The Naming Of Cats you all did a great job - it’s not easy to stand still, reciting your many lines and hold the audience’s attention for that length of time. Your diction and projection were great here and this scene was quite powerful to watch. Well done - a great start to the show.

As we moved through each scene you barely left the stage and I was impressed with how well you had all learnt so many lyrics and all that choreo. The dance moves for Cats are notoriously difficult, very balletic whilst remaining feline in nature. You made a brave attempt at moving like cats throughout, particularly the soloists - well done. The ensemble remaining upstage during certain numbers, could perhaps have offered us a few more cat-like reactions, so that you did not just look like people sitting on stage. I spotted one or two kitties pawing at their ears, but I would have liked more of this from the ensemble. You must remember to stay in character all the time.

All of the soloists did a wonderful job and I enjoyed Isobel as the Rum-Tum-Tugger, Sarah as Bustopher Jones in white spats , Daniella as the nimble Macavity and Megan as Magical Mister Mistoffelees. Lovely performances all round.  Luca and Lucy as Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer made a super double act, with some great movement and lovely singing together. Nathan was a great Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat and your scene Nathan, with the train, was lovely. Ruth and Annabel as Carbuckety and Jemima were great as was Ruby as Tantomile. Well done all !

Ava as Demeter with Esmé as Bombalurina were absolutely superb together. Ladies, you performed brilliantly with some lovely singing and super choreo. Gus the Theatre Cat was played beautifully by Emma - you were every inch the doddery old cat, reminiscing about his days on the stage playing Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend Of The Fell. Old Deuteronomy too, played by Jacob, was lovely - more confident in this role than last time I saw you, you are improving with each performance. Your coat was fab too Jacob! Abbie as Jelliyorum and Isobel as Jennyanydots did a great job, as did Mabel as Cassandra. And what great boys in Tom, Noah and Alfie as Quazo, Alonzo and Corricle Cat, well done lads! 

Stand out performers for me were Rhys as Munkostrap - an excellent performance young man, a really lovely, confident singing voice and you owned the stage with great posture and facial play. A  really great job Rhys, well done. Also, Jessica as Grizabella. This is such an iconic role, with a huge song but you did it justice and can be very proud of what you achieved. I have to give a special mention too for Esmé, who pulls focus every time she is on stage with her excellent posture, fantastic dancing and lovely stage presence.

Beautifully directed by Rowan Alfred, with simple costume and staging which allowed these young performers to make this difficult piece their own, this was a highly successful venture. With choreography by Ellen Tipping (some exceptional movement in the VERY long dance breaks, not easy to choreograph!) and great musical direction from Ian Tipping brought the best out of these young singers and made them sound fabulous - when the whole cast sang together they sounded superb. 

So a huge well done to everyone on successfully pulling off a very difficult show - you can all be extremely proud of what you achieved and I very much look forward to your next production.

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