Voices

The concert was very aptly named ‘Voices’ because throughout, the amazing voices of the whole cast were the main stay of it but in addition to that, the singing was accompanied by some very slick movement and dance routines. The opening number ‘Fascinating Rhythm’ from Crazy For You had the cast doing very complicated hand movements which were enhanced by everyone wearing white gloves, a super number which definitely set the tone for what was to come. Act One contained sixteen named items and Act Two fourteen, many having several numbers within them and which were indeed, all worthy of praise, but please excuse me if I don’t comment on each one. I will just mention a few of my highlights. In Act One the Junior members were just fantastic and excelled in both of their numbers. Firstly a medley from Moana with excellent solo singing from Abigail Ashworth, Finley Eden, Krissey Gresty and Polly Barker and their second number, ‘Fixer Upper’ from Frozen was superb and again featured some terrific solo singing from Anya Bramell, Anya Staten, Daniella Stringer, Lottie B, Morgan Hemstock and Shannon Elmore. The two numbers from the Lion King were great and the Men gave a lovely rendition of Ben E King’s ‘Stand by me’ as did the Ladies in ’It’s the Girls’ (Bette Midler) which featured Jan Outram. Elizabeth Brookes sang ‘Practically Perfect’ from Mary Poppins and she was indeed - just that! The closing number for Act One was a medley from Phantom of the Opera all of which was beautifully and so movingly delivered. 

Act Two opened with a splendid number ‘A Musical’ from Something Rotten and featured Pete Bostock and the brilliant Andrew Buxton. Lucy Hassall’s singing of ‘Is that Alright’ from A Star is Born was definitely more than alright - it was fabulous and Jen Lewis, Elizabeth Brookes and Sarah Stone gave a very moving rendition of ‘The Prayer’ from Quest for Camelot. Jess Dolman’s ‘Never Enough’ from The greatest Showman was terrific as was the Doris Day Medley sung by Jen Lewis. I absolutely loved ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ from Tina the Musical which was outstandingly sung by Jess Dolman and Stacey Hyndman. Both of the numbers by the Juniors in Act Two were again, top-notch. Firstly a medley of songs from Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat with soloist Samuel Brookes and their second contribution was ‘You Will be Found’ from Dear Evan Hansen. The stage literally lit up when the men appeared to sing ‘Go West and YMCA’ - The Village People. They were all very appropriately attired and one (but I won’t mention your name Andrew) was especially appropriately and most ‘fittingly’ attired in the shortest of shorts - I will say no more!! A splendid end to the show came from the whole cast singing Andra Day’s ‘Rise Up’ with soloist Stacey Hyndman. The lighting, the first-rate back projections, the excellent small band, led by the talented Ben Ward on keyboard, and the awesome ‘voices’ of the cast all certainly combined to make this a truly wonderful concert. Many congratulations to everyone involved.

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