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The Sound of Music

Author: Wendy Newton

Information

Date
17th May 2012
Society
St Ambrose Players Leyland
Venue
St Ambrose Church Hall, Leyland
Type of Production
Musical
Director
Bev Yates?
Musical Director
Maria Green

Choreographer: Ami Yates

There‘s certainly no need to write a synopsis for any reports, about the “Sound of Music” but safe to say that this is one of the most popular musicals of all time. Many, many companies have produced this over the years all with their own presentation, each showing the various talents of their company, but all keep within the boundaries of the original requirements of the good old Rodgers and Hammerstein recipe! Indeed, St Ambrose took on this good old favourite and made it their own.
Utilising the venue to the best of their ability, whilst there were limitations, the company tackled this huge musical very well. Bev Yates ( Director) managed to get the best out of her cast, using her experience and vision, whist being careful to keep to the original styling of the show.
Maria Green (Musical Director) carefully commanded a small but adequate orchestra, which accompanied the cast well and provided a really good all round balanced sound.
Ami Yates(Choreographer) provided some really effective routines, moving the cast well in order to utilise the stage even when there was sometimes difficulty with space within one or two scenes.
In the main the show was well cast, with each member bringing out their own characterisation. Generally sung well, but sometimes some of the numbers were sung in chest register when they would normally be in head register with a more Operatic feel and sound; it seemed to work and didn’t detract from the fact that everyone was working so hard to make the best of the individual roles to make this show a success.
Those usual favourite and iconic renditions were well executed and sent the audience home humming those old favourite tunes. The Children were also well cast and had that “Ah “ factor as usual. Dialogue and songs were all word perfect and dance routines well drilled, each of them were really individual showing their own characters to achieve a great line up.
Some really effective scenery was made to measure and painted by a very talented in-house crew, but I did think that the scene changes through out the performance, were quite noisy and distracting.
Well done to wardrobe for some really nice costumes, it can be difficult to give some uniformity to Nuns - that are obviously not Nuns - and who are not use to wearing habits, (not the prettiest of apparel!) The children were again immaculate however with the adult members of the cast. I did think that more attention could have been given to the hair styling and also some of the footwear (worn by the Nuns particularly) let the side down a little.
It’s all those attention to detail things that gives the overall production finesse and a finishing polish.
For such a large company and lack of space, everyone handled the staging well and should be commended for this presentation of this great musical.
Congratulations to all committee, poduction team, cast. crew and front of house for a really successful show.
I had a really enjoyable evening and I thank you for your hospitality, I look forward to seeing you all again.
Wendy Newton, District 6 NODA Rep.

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