The Musicals Showdown

Gemma Shaw had put together a novel concept for a Concert which worked really well. “The Musicals Showdown” was a competition between Broadway and the West End, competing in certain categories for the best song with the company singing some well known and some not so well-known musical theatre shows, although we very cleverly never found out a winner! The categories were chosen by a spinning wheel (well pre-determined!) in view of the audience – a nice touch and some voiceovers – avoiding the use of a compere – an equally nice touch which moved the concert on at pace.

Here are some of the highlights:

The first competition category was ‘Movie Musicals’ – a great opening ‘Opening Up’ from “Waitress”, an uplifting company number featuring Gemma Shaw, Madie Meese, Sara Aldridge and Lisa Whitehouse. They also got great fun out of ‘Hey Baby’ from “Footloose” sung by Lynda Dunn and Angie Esson with Lisa Whitehouse, Sara Aldridge, Matilda Wilcox, Dixiee-May Gormley and Kaitlyn Esson

Our next category was ‘Songs of Yesteryear’ – Great selection including a brilliant version of ‘I Get a Kick Out of You’ from ‘Anything Goes” with Holly Mills. ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ from the show of the same name got the audience swaying and singing along – great work by Laura Wall, Sara Aldridge, Matilda Wilcox and Holly Davies.

Then came ‘Spooky Musicals’ – loved ‘Angel of Music’ from “The Phantom of the Opera” with incredible clarity and vocals from Adiele Walsh and Holly Mills and gorgeous movement from Kaitlyn Esson.

In ‘From Page to Stage’ came next and we had some great songs from musicals that started life as works of literature. Livvie May gave us the iconic ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ from “Les Misérables” and you could a hear a pin drop in the hall. Also the charming ‘School Song’ from “Matilda” with, appropriately, Matilda Wilcox, Holly Davies, Dixie-Mae Gormley, Imogen Nicholas and the Company as well as a magical version of ‘One Short Day’ from “Wicked” from Sara Aldridge and Lynda Dunn

Up next in the competition was the ‘We Love Jukebox’ category – the audience loved and sang along with gusto to the Company’s rendition of ‘Come What May’ from “Moulin Rouge”. One of my favourite songs, ‘Show Me Love’ from “&Juliet” was beautifully sung by Laura Wall, Kaitlyn Esson, Madie Meese, Angie Esson and the Company.

Our final selection was from the ‘School Musicals’ category topping off the Showdown with some cracking musical numbers. Beginning with a rousing version of ‘Fame’ from the whole company, Adiele Walsh with Livvie May and Sophie Evans gave us a heartfelt ‘It Means Beautiful’ from “Everybody’s Talking about Jamie”, Sophie Evans again with Julie Evans, Imogen Nicholas, Charlie Baker and the Company gave us a delightful version of the “Dear Evan Hansen” standard, ‘You Will be Found’. Gemma Shaw and the Company were up next with a new song on me but a powerful piece that will stay in my mind, ‘I See Stars’ from “Mean Girls”. The finale saw the Company in great voice for ‘Out of Darkness’ from “Everybody’s Talking about Jamie”.

The Company comprised of all the soloists listed above along with Liz Bennett and Kay Churchill .

A lovely evening for any Musical Theatre enthusiast, my only slight misgiving was that on occasion some of the Company numbers were hard to hear due to the volume of the backing track, but the audience made up for it by joining in at all the right moments.

Congratulations to the Production Team, the Technical, Stage and Front of House Teams and the extremely talented cast. Thank you for your lovely warm welcome and for a highly enjoyable evening.

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