The Olympians

Essex Police Musical Society

The Olympians

 

Director – Lauren Brimson

Assistant Director – Kay de Godoy

Musical Director– David Howell

 

Performed at Assembly Hall, Essex Police HQ, Chelmsford on Wednesday 10th April 2024

 

Reps name Victoria Carey

Reps district 8

NODA East

 

The Olympians is a musical I had heard of but didn’t know a huge amount about, not surprising as it is a new show and EPMS are one of only a few societies that have performed it. This was also my first visit to an EPMS production and I must say a huge thank you to the front of house team for the incredibly warm welcome my guest and I received.

As with many groups in the district the recent pandemic has thrown up several challenges including a loss of society members, in this case I am told mainly male performers. So for this reason The Olympians was a good choice of show where there are multiple female roles. EPMS have some strong female talent and this musical was the ideal platform to show case it.

The Olympians follows the story of three women Sophia (Grace Ward), Zoe (Kay de Godoy) and Lexi (Rosy Low) chosen by the Greek Goddesses Athena (Claire Lambeth), Artemis (Donna Stevenson) and Aprhrodite (Justina Bartley). One for their brain, one for their physical prowess and one for their kindness of heart. The Goddesses send them on an epic quest to prove their worth as a hero so they can anoint the winner as their champion.

All six of these ladies suited their roles very well and gave nice performances. The excellent band led by MD David Howell supported them brilliantly during some tricky numbers and I very much appreciated the efforts with harmonisation when it was called for. They came across particularly well in the song “Wide Open Spaces”.

As our hero’s pursue their quest they meet some friends along the way. Thalia, the narrator was confidently done by Hannah Gibbs, interacting well with the audience and keeping the pace moving. Xander, the brother of Lexi and love interest of Sophie was sweetly played by Strachan Coutinho although his solo song “Bad Day” did appear to stretch his vocal range a little too much. But still a good, believable performance. Matt Holt gave us an extremely enthusiastic portrayal of the God Apollo. Dare I say it…a little too enthusiastic! Matt was clearly having a great time on stage which is always wonderful to see but it is still important to keep focus, especially on the MD during the musical numbers. The principal line up was completed by Stuart Turnbull as a “hippy” Orpheus pining for his lost love.

The ensemble had some fun numbers to perform and for the most part were in time and sang out. On occasion though a couple of the chorus members did detract from the dialogue and vocals of the principals with some very over the top miming. Sometimes less is more, especially at a small venue where the audience are quite close to the stage. I did find the spacing a little unimaginative as well with many of the numbers performed in rows. I feel better use could have been made of the space on stage as there was very little in the way of set. The scaffolding used didn’t really work as it was left bare for a considerable amount of time in Act 2 so just looked out of place. Having said that the scene with Zoe in the rowing boat was excellently done and very effective. The Greek costumes looked well made and were colourful, however the civilian costumes I found a little confusing as there didn’t seem to be a theme to them and I would have liked to have seen the guards in matching tops. Maybe a little picky but it’s details like this that make a difference visually for the audience.

Sound was patchy, we had to strain our ears during some of the dialogue and vocals and at other times it was really well balanced. Lighting was an issue with stage left often completely in darkness which was a shame, particularly for Rosy Low who was delivering some lovely vocals without even a spotlight. Having said that it was opening night and technical problems can be expected. Hopefully these issues were ironed out over the rest of the run.

Overall The Olympians is quite a fun show with some good songs. I really enjoyed it’s message of female empowerment and could see how much the cast were enjoying themselves. Congratulations to Director Lauren Brimson for taking on the challenge of bringing this new musical to the stage. No mean feat when you have no references to call upon!

Thank you to everyone involved for an enjoyable evening.

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