The Reunion

Carnoustie Musical Society pulled out all the stops to stage the Scottish Premiere of "The Reunion", a new British Musical written by Ian Cook and Ian Newton. The piece has a formidable cast of 24 named characters and is set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Grangebourne which meant a severe challenge to the people of the Angus seaside town to master a new accent - a challenge which they met with great success. As the title suggests, the plot was based around a class of school pupils celebrating their last days at school and act two was the reunion a number of years later. In the leading romantic roles of Tom Green and Debbie James, Mike Burns and Kerry Mitchell made a convincing couple with Mike in particularly good voice. Kevin Smith and Jane McNamara, as a more light-hearted pair, Harry Machin and Susan Pye, also handled their roles to a high standard as did husband and wife team Grant and Pamela Roach as Dick Littleworth and Laura Smith. All three couples worked very well together. Chris Jukes and Joanna Fitzgerald excelled in the roles of school teachers with much of the comedy of the piece, which was also in the capable hand of Roger Brunton in the dual roles of janitor Geoffrey Drain and the Priest. His solo in the latter role was a musical highlight of the piece. Another hilariously comic performance was by Brian Boyd as the serious careers master Mr Grey who longed to be a dancer - and showed his suspenders to prove it! Other character roles were ably played by Liz Pardoe as the headmistress, Malcolm Simmons as James, the school bully, Pam Wallace and Dave Soutar as Bebbie's parents, dad being a particularly severe Northern parent who interfered with his daughters search for romance. Add to this an excellent singing chorus and well-drilled choreography and you had an excellent show obviously enjoyed by cast and audience alike. Even Musical Director Richard Waghorn had a cameo part as the DJ! Congratulations to first-time producers Claire Smith and Ali Laing on accepting such a challenge and coming out on top. Well done, everyone.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.