The Witches of Eastwick

Witches of Eastwick essentially tells the story of small town attitudes and values, three powerful women and one extraordinary man.    This society sets itself an extremely high standard and this production was no exception. It is a technically difficult show to stage, so many congratulations for pulling off such a show with such a professional look and feel to it.

The orchestra was very good, although I did find the white jacket as worn by the MD to be something of a distraction from the action on the stage and the volume of the drummer would perhaps have been more suited to a rock band – I did struggle (and many times failed) to hear anything apart from the drummer.  I am uncertain as to whether that was due to the volume of the drummer or the sound balance not being quite right – although I do think that turning the microphones up in any way for the singers would have spoiled the effect greatly, but whatever the reason I did miss many of the words, both spoken and sung.

The lighting was very showy but well before the end I was coming to the conclusion that the idea was to blind the audience into not seeing something on the stage – for me personally far too many ‘lights in the eyes of the audience’ (especially white lights) that said – some of the effects on the stage were extremely effective, and the magic created by the smoke and lights was most effective.

The costumes looked quite superb and exactly the right period so that we were whisked off to Eastwick as soon as the curtain opened.  The choreography fitted the mood and tone of the show perfectly, never too much and executed well – many congratulations.

The flying was managed perfectly – we clearly saw the shock and surprise, and then the joy and excitement in the faces of Alex, Jane and Sukie - although one of the three did look somewhat uncomfortable whilst actually ‘flying’ which did slightly detract from sheer magic and wonder of it all.

The society had without doubt assembled an excellent cast of principals and there were some simply superb facial expressions and comic timing on display and both singing and acting were very good. I must especially congratulate ‘the three witches’ on some wonderful harmonies – your voices blended SO well.

The chorus supported the principals excellently and generally acted and reacted well to what was going on.  With such a large cast, the backstage support must have been tremendous everyone involved in this production has to take credit, the stage crew, lighting, dressers, front of house tea, etc.

Another professional and polished show, my thanks to all concerned and, as always, thank you for your most generous hospitality.

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