When You Wish Upon a Star

Do you believe in fairy tales? Well, Hayling Musical Society set out to convince us that we can all learn something from them in “When You Wish Upon a Star”. Director Zoe Fisher has taken a big selection of songs, mostly from contemporary musicals, and woven them together into a story, with neat rhyming introductions to each show featured projected onto the back of the stage, with all the songs relating in some way to fairy tales, witches, princes, and princesses. A great theme, which must have appealed to the many children present in the packed first night audience, as well as the adults.

Sumptuous and colourful costumes were used in every number (please take a bow the costume co-ordinators: Zoe Fisher, Megan Fisher, Emily Harkness, Maria Hammon, Maureen Cocker, and Victoria Swift). I was particularly impressed with all the animal masks and costumes used for “The Circle of Life” – providing a real climax for the end of Act 1. The costumes were enhanced immeasurably by the stunning lighting design (Ian Pratt and Holly Sandford) and I particularly liked the posed tableaux that ended the big numbers.

Apart from a few microphone crackles, the sound quality was good, and the singers were balanced well with the backing tracks, so that we were able to hear most of the words and enjoy the excellent quality of the singing from the soloists and chorus. MDs Rhian Gardner and Sarah Jane Brown must have worked the singers hard to achieve this standard. It’s sad not to have a live orchestra very often these days, but the backing tracks were all of excellent quality.

The stage was mostly a black box with a platform at the back, with props and scenery brought on as needed by the cast and the efficient stage crew. Thus, the numbers flowed easily from one to the next, making this a nicely pacey show.

The excellent colour programme, which had many lovely pictures of the large cast in costume, sadly didn’t detail who performed each number. However, this was such an ensemble piece that it would be iniquitous to credit a few people when everyone, down to the very smallest member of Hayling Youngstars, gave such an impressive performance. Not only was each song sung perfectly, but they were acted as well, and the imaginative choreography (Zoe Fisher again!) was executed to perfection. We experienced all the emotions you portrayed, and the sheer joy and exuberance that we witnessed on that stage really came across the footlights and left us feeling elated on our way home.

What a showcase this was for the tremendous talents of this young and vibrant group! There are undoubtedly some stars of the future amongst this large cast, and great credit must go to Director Zoe Fisher for honing and polishing the undoubted talents that exist in HMS to perfection, and turning out a tremendous performance that the very enthusiastic audience will remember for a long time to come. 

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