"We Love Musicals" by The Summer School.

Nottingham Arts Theatre.

Ok, let me prepare you: I may not be winning any votes with this review, but I always said that I would be honest.

The evening didn't get off to a flying start due to the show starting forty minutes late, with several parents and customers complaining behind me about the no access to the auditorium. I think this should have been acknowledged at the top of the show, but there was no apology forthcoming at the start nor the end.

The programme was like panning for gold in the Klondike; there was gold to be found but was messy. But don't worry, this will not be a panning review, the show just needed a bit of fine tuning in places.

I know how hard everyone who tutors these Summer School kids work, often twelve hours a day for the week, and Amy stated at the end, when the certificates were given out that, when this started up, she had twenty students. This week she had sixty students, also commenting that next year maybe there should be two weeks of "We Love The Musicals". That idea I think is a great one.

This Summer School is so obviously a big hit with everyone, that spreading the show concept over two weeks would bring more revenue into the theatre, as well as give the tutors smaller classes, which I feel would also allow more focus on the programme selections with smaller groups.

I also felt that, with many of the children being really young, a smaller programme would also benefit them. Believe me, you get your money's worth with the show choices, twelve sections, sub-divided into between two and five sub divisions. That is a hell of a lot of bang for your buck!

Anyway, let me tell you about the gold in my panning bowl. Molly Hanya's vocals on "Gimme Gimme", from "Thoroughly Modern Millie" were spectacularly good, as was her version of "Cruella de Ville" from "The Aristocats". That young lady has real powerful pipes on her and is a boon to any musical theatre production.

There were also some big voices in the "Les Miserables" section with Kayla Burgess belting out "I Dreamed A Dream" and the following Orange and Pink group version of "Do You Hear The People Sing". The young singer on the second mic from the audience left - down right stage position - absolutely felt every word she delivered and not only sang her parts but performed it.

Loved the "Wizard Of Oz" section, especially the choreography for the younger groups.

I also enjoyed Kate Russell and Kairon Wale's version of "Start Of Something New" from the "High School Musical Jr" section - which by the way is next Friday's production. With this particular musical, a lot of energy is needed and they all gave plenty of that, getting the audience to clap along with "We're All In This Together" to close the first act.

Act two started with one of the lesser performed sections from "A Chorus Line", but one of my favourites, "At The Ballet" which showcased Hermione Cumbers, Yara Johns-Ramos and Sophie Benner.

Then came the cute section with the Blue Group all dressed as Dalmatian puppies for the "101 Dalmations" spot - if you'll pardon the pun - on the "Dalmation Plantation".

Highlighting the choreographic side of the tutelage this week, we took a trip to "Hades Town".

After this came a selection of poems, and again, I know some people will disagree with me here, but I didn't see why a selection of children's poems fitted in with a show called "We Love The Musicals". I do acknowledge that the very young members of the Summer School really got their chance to shine in the spotlight, reciting these. There was one section where the empty stage time was actually longer than one of the poems! Anyway, that's for later on.

I love "Seussical" so there was no doubt that I was going to love this section from the Green, Yellow, Orange and Blue groups.

Anyway, talking about going out with a bang. the finale was "Grease"- which is a show that you can buy your tickets for now at the Nottingham Arts Theatre. Act One ended with "We're All In This Together" and Act two closed with "We Go Together" complete with T Birds and Pink Ladies.

Sixty young people all getting a taste of stage craft and giving everything that they had for our entertainment. There was plenty of sweat that went into the show, and even some blood - Billy Kiety, I think - and very nearly tears when the certificates were handed out, and we learned that one lady had reached the age where she could no longer belong to Summer School - but we can see her, and I apologise for not remembering her name, as Patty in "Grease". And it was lovely to see Dylan Whistance back again after last week, still giving his all.

Can I also mention as well a young girl who was small of stature, not sure if her name was Elizabeth - there was more than one - who had a belter of a voice, almost like a young Lulu. Wow! just Wow!

If I were an influencer, what would I change to make it a better show?

I would tighten up the stage management as there were many times when the stage was bare. With this amount of children to manage, that would need more than one person to make sure that the group or person was ready to go on as soon as the previous person(s) had exited the stage. This would also have reduced the time of the show, maybe only by five minutes or so, but would make sure that there was never a bare stage. That said, I wouldn't like the job because I can imagine it takes a person(s) who has a low stress level, so I take my hat off to you, Mark Russell.

There were several times that I couldn't hear what the young people were saying, or singing, and these were the times when the children were right at the back of the stage - upstage centre - instead of right at the front near the six microphones. I did bet a better view of the group stood at the back of the stage though by looking at the phone camera that the woman, who had previously been advised to stop filming, resumed her filming, just in front of me.

I'm also not sure why, when the young ones came on for their poems, that they used the microphones farthest right and left on the stage, instead of being centre stage.

Look, I acknowledge all the hard work of the tutors Amy Rogers-Gee, Kimberly George, Emily-Hope Wilkins, Danniella Stringer, Zoe Ellis, Alison Russell, Grace Deakin and Marie Rogers, but it didn't top last week's show for me. With a bit of a tightening up though in areas, it would have been a worthy match. That said, I also think they all deserve to wear blue and red T Shirts with a big letter "S" emblazoned in the middle.

And let's not forget, the kids that signed up for this Summer School have had an education in several areas of musical theatre and stage craft that they, hopefully, will never forget and possibly start them on a long yellow brick road to taking part in local theatre.

Lighting tonight was by Evie Webster and Sound by Oliver Read.