Weston Side Story

Once again Winscombe Youth Theatre displayed their talents in an original work by the director John Butler, based very loosely on the well known musical West Side Story. The story told of the love between two cats, Blossom the daughter of snooty upper-class parents Mater and Pater, and a window cleaner called Piers. The story was set on the roof of the pier in Weston Super Mare.      The company comprised  cats as the ‘goodies’ and  dogs as the ‘baddies’, so all the children were costumed as cats and dogs apart from two boys dressed as seagulls.                                                                                                                                                                  As with all good stories there was a twist in the ‘tail’... no pun intended, and everything turned out well... Mater and Pater went to Glastonbury and became hippies and then agreed to the union of Blossom and Piers. 

The music had been chosen to support the story and we heard ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows’ from Piers, ‘I Want to Break Free’ from the French Poodle Foo Foo (bullied by  Hugo the Bull Dog) and a good ‘ Rhythm of Life’ from the full company  The final company number was ‘Its Raining Men, a good lively number enjoyed by all the cast, the only problem being the verse before the chorus... it was musically so low, the children found difficulty reaching the note and maintaining the song particularly in the reprise.

There was a humorous touch from Mater and Pater when they mimed to opera, Mozart... The Magic Flute, very funny and well done. Another well executed attempt at a send up came from Money when he performed ‘Maria’, a little comedian in the making if ever I saw one... excellent timing.

It was good to see the new talent blossoming and I look forward to following their efforts over the coming years. This group is, at the moment, quite a young group, and they all need the experience that WYT offers.

Winscombe Youth Theatre always push the boundaries and encourage the children in love of musical theatre both in  singing, movement and acting, and this show was no exception. My only problem is  how do you integrate  so many small children into the show with the older, main cast, I think they enjoyed themselves but there was a lot of standing around and not a lot for them to shine in.

Well done on another entertaining show.

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