Lace Market Theatre Youth Group Showcase.
Lace Market Theatre.

There is one very good reason that i love seeing any theatrical group showcase and that is to see some of my favourite bits again, or to see things I may have missed, or just to see what particular groups have been working on over the last year.

This showcase features a lot of stuff, and you can tell that there are some bright stars of the future coming through the Youth Theatre ranks, which was mirrored by the awards ceremony at the end.

The evening was packed with serious pieces of theatre, dance sections, some new comedy pieces which I certainly had nor seen before as well as a couple of classic comedy pieces. We also got to hear some rather good vocals.

The showcase started with the whole group doing "Happy Days" which got us all in the mood, They bookended this at the end with a rousing "Timewarp" from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and a mid way comic version of The Spice Girls "Wannabe"

The comedy sections were just the right length and showed the groups ability to present comedy, which is not easy. Loved all the comedy but one of my favourites was the "Love Island" piece. I have never watched an episode of this show but you seem to ingest the characters in the TV show like osmosis, so this section which featured Emilia,Henry, Katherine and Nina was a special interest to me, and I loved the way that they took the mickey out of the characters and the show format.

As previously mentioned, there are some really good singers in this group and the stripped back versions were what I loved the best because you could really hear their voices and the range of emotion they put in.

There were a couple of very interesting pieces that really attracted my attention.

Emilia mimed and danced to Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" and there were a few giggles and laughs went round, Us of an older disposition will remember watching Kate perform the same dance routine in the video for the song and at the time the moves were quite comical because Kate Bush was ballet trained and her choreography was way ahead of her time in the 70's. Today I can see that people may interpret the choreography as verging on comedy, but I loved what Emilia replicated, plus I love the song.

The other "surprise" was a signed version of Rihanna and Eminem's "Love The Way You Lie", which is not an easy ask but Rhiannon made this entertaining and I loved it.

I can't say there was anything that I didn't really enjoy, and even the "Ballad Of Barry and Freda" which is so well associated with its' writer, Victoria Wood, although slightly not age appropriate, did make me smile as poor Adelaide wrestled with a droopy mic stand and the printed lyrics flying from the music stand. I know that this was not intended, and Adelaide soldiered on like a pro, but it added that unintended comedy extra and we laughed with Adelaide and not at her... or was it supposed to be the way we saw it? If it was, that was a very clever move.

A brilliant evening of entertainment from a brilliant group of performers.

Just a couple of extras though while I think about it. I think recognition ought to be given by the young man who made sure the mic stands were in their place for the performers. A stage hand/manager in the making.

And also to the two lads, Fred and Henry, in the sea of young women. Congratulations on both of you for your awards, and also to the women recipients as well.

Now let's get some more young men into the Lace Market Youth Theatre Group for next season!

Seriously though, thanks to all of you for a lovely evening, I am so jealous of your talent and if I were ***** years younger I'd love to be where you lot are now, at the start of some blossoming theatrical careers.