"The stage is alive with the sound of.".. oh hang on, that wasn't one of the songs in their evening of celebrating the world of Musical Theatre. But this evening teachers, staff, adults and teenagers of NWTAC (North West Theatre Arts Company) all worked together on stage to present some of their favourite songs from the shows.
The evening was presented in 'sections' with two of the girls acting as a double-act compere in between. The idea was a good one and mostly worked well with some of the jokes being very funny - one of them pretending to be a little dumb and take things very literally - but overall this style of comedy needs much more practice to make it work fluidly and to make it appear immediate.
The show opened with a whimper. Perhaps microphones had not been switched on; perhaps the lighting was not on cue, or perhaps it was meant to be a very underwhelming and quiet start since it was only one girl on stage and then joined by a second - before finally the full company came on and gave us a hearty rendition of 'Another Openin' Another Show'. All costumed in black with some white and bits of red, the look was smart, uniform, and appropriate for almost any song they chose to sing.
The stage was a three-level affair... and in a converted low-ceilinged industrial unit, that is no mean feat! All in black and with liberal but effective use of haze, these levels were utilised to the max this evening.
The first section was devoted to 'Phantom Of The Opera'. Beth Singh was the operatic-voiced Christine, whilst a lighter tenor voice was given to The Phantom himself as sang by Jonny Molyneux. Raoul was sung by Prab Singh. The section was nicely put together and all three voices worked well together.
One thing I noticed straight away though - and this trend continued through every section - was that the backing tracks that the society chose to use were shortened versions of the songs. This was perhaps done in an attempt to fit as many different songs into the evening as possible and give as many people the opportunity of performing a song they wanted, but for people like myself who know every word in every song backwards and was singing along in my head to all of them, I found the shortening of them frustrating sadly. Moreover, a couple of these shortened versions did not have the same impact or failed to truly make sense either in or out of context. Shame.
'Phantom' was followed by a 'Chicago' section, featuring Melissa Grimes and Milly Potts as Velma and Roxie, with Anthony Horricks playing lawyer Billy Flynn for 'Razzle Dazzle'.
This was followed by one of my favourite sections this evening, which saw Jonny Molyneux's soft tenor voice reach the purest of falsettos, giving a good rendition of Frankie Valli with his backing group The Four Seasons for a 'Jersey Boys' tribute.
A section of miscellaneous songs came next. Starting with Paige Garth giving a solid rendition of 'Can't Say No', we went through 'Sound Of Music', The King And I', to 'Carousel'; before finally coming to the last section of the first act.. 'Wicked'. Francesca Collinge proficiently took us through both 'One Fine Day', and 'Popular', before Beth Singh came along to finish the first act with 'The Wizard And I' and 'Defying Gravity'. As with all the songs in this showcase, the chorus numbers always utilised the full company and their cumulative sound always sounded great. Some nice harmonies and some simple but stylishly executed choreography aiding the principal singers.
Act two continued in the same vein, with sections from 'Miss Saigon', 'Mamma Mia', 'Rent', some more miscellaneous sets, and finishing with 'Les Miserables'. The red part of the costumes had been changed in the second act to a more mellow purple, but that was the only mellowing... everything else was still full throttle. Personal favourites in this act (yes, it is time to be subjective just for once!), included Evie Lucas and Beth Singh singing 'I Still Believe', Francesca Collinge's 'Adelaide's Lament', the entire 'Rent' section, 'All I Do Is Dream Of You', and the 'One Day More' finale.
The mics were sadly not playing ball some times this evening, and even when the soloist was aware of this and came on with a hand-held affair, it still caused some problems. This was such a shame, but fortunately the company continued as if nothing was wrong, so hats off to them!
This was a professionally produced and entertaining evening which gave all those of all ages a chance to perform their favourite songs, build their confidence, extend their knowledge of stagecaft, inspire others, and improve their own technique.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 21.4.23
on - 21.4.23
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