"Stand In The Spotlight - Seniors Annual Showcase 2025"

Squire Performing Arts Centre, Nottingham.

Showcases are a very different theatre shows and I'll just let you know how I view them. I see musicals and plays almost in the same way as I listen to concept albums, like "Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds", Pink Floyd's "The Wall" or Lloyd-Webber's "Evita". The album should be listened to as a whole and be judged as a whole concept.

A Showcase, on the other hand is a collection of different pieces, often not related to the piece before or after the one that you're focused on at any given time of enjoying, a bit like  one of those old Ronco or K-Tel collection albums where every track is by a different artist and probably a different genre of music, so you can dip in and out at any given stage of the record; you have your favourite tracks, and maybe some that you don't like as much, but every track is different and can be commented on singularly, maybe not as a whole.

You may like the entire album of a concept album, every track and tell people about the album as a whole without designating any one or two tracks for praise that may make the other tracks on the concept album, seem not so good, even though in your mind the whole album is amazing.

A "Greatest Hits" album you may allow yourself to like some tracks over the others, and by doing so, still be able to tell others that the whole album is brilliant. I hope that you understand the analogy in this explanation and how I go about reviewing these two different forms of theatre, and hopefully the highlights I list below will give you a taste of how good Saturday's Showcase was.

First off, let me say that the staging of this showcase is the tightest and best that I've witnessed for Spotlight. No gaps in between the performances, and there were 38 different performances, often one section segueing into the next creating a smooth and professional hand over to the next piece, and I love that quality of no nonsense, time saving staging.

The Showcase mixed a varied selection of musical theatre pieces, some very well known to the average theatre goer, and some lesser known pieces, monologues, devised pieces, contemporary, tap and ballet dance sections and popular mainstream songs, so here are some of my highlights from Saturday night. I hope that there's no offence caused by my not mentioning anyone's piece in full description or detail.

Act One started with a brave choice of the ballad "There Will Be Sun" from "Groundhog Day", a musical by Tim Minchin and then ramped up to "What The Hell" from "Mrs Doubtfire" into "It's A Fine Fine Line", a ballad from "Avenue Q" sung by Hemi Lewis. The show then took us "Back To the Future" with "The Power Of Love", showcasing the three male performers sharing lead vocals, George Young, Preston Nash and Jason Thompson.

This was followed by three lesser known pieces, including some lovely contemporary and ballet performances which led on to a storming choreography piece to Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits" from "Tina -The Musical".

I loved the arrangement for "If they Could See Me Now" from "Sweet Charity" leading into one of my favourite comic pieces of musical theatre "Agony" from "Into The Woods" performed by Preston Nash and George Young.

There was a slice of "Newsies" with "King Of New York", a monologue from Jasmine Leek and then another lesser known musical piece from a musical called "Dog Fight", again featuring the three lads and Hemi called "Hey Good Looking", which was great fun to watch and included several other members of the Showcase cast.

A heartfelt version of "Maybe Next time" from "Cabaret" and a nice comedy section from Lucy Horton and Esmie Smith-Cockayne.

Then came a real biggie for me personally "Bye Bye Blackbird", the version from the musical "Fosse", danced by many of the girls with George Young. Bob Fosse was such an iconic, stylish Choreographer and Director and all of the stylings that made him the legend that he was were included in this section of the show.

A powerful close to the first act came with "Backstage Romance" from the musical "Moulin Rouge", the second selection from this musical, "Crazy Rolling" having been performed earlier in the act.

Act Two started with another one of my favourite songs, and again from a musical that is rarely performed from the Nineties, "Smokey Joe's Cafe" and the sublime ensemble number "On Broadway".

"Whipped Into Shape" from "Legally Blonde" gave us chance to see a great slice of the 2025 cast singing, dancing as well as skipping in this fun number; I could hardly skip this mention, now could I?

Up next came a monologue, which intrigued me, and I now want to seek out a longer version of it. It was performed by Jason Thompson, who I noticed visually got more relaxed as the evening went by. I'd love to see Jason in a main role because he has a certain charisma when he is on stage by himself but is often concealed in a group, even though this young man is probably the tallest of the group. He certainly was more relaxed delivering this piece and hopefully we'll see more of him upfront in the future.

It's no secret that I can't wait for "Something Rotten" the comedy musical about William Shakespeare to finally tour the UK, and I love the soundtrack, which is why I loved "Will Power" being included in this showcase, featuring Preston Nash on vocals.

This then segued nicely into "Lovely Ladies", another big ensemble piece from the musical "Les Miserables", and in turn this segued into "I Dreamed A Dream".

I must apologise for not remembering which young lady performed with George Young on "This World Will Remember Us" from "Bonnie & Clyde" but this duo created great excitement, especially as it's one of my favourite, and probably most well known song from that musical, as well it being staged wonderfully.

Loved "Run Freedom Run" taken from "Urinetown" and that started a run of equally high quality and highly entertaining race to the finale. "What It Means To Be A Friend" from "Thirteen The Musical", "That's Life" from another little known musical "Smash" and then a choreographed piece to "Defying Gravity" by a band who I love to bits, Third Reprise. This band take musical theatre songs and perform them in a different style. In this case it's performed as a funk/dance track featuring the amazing voice of Amanda Barise. It gives a real groove to the song and allowed the dancers to perform in a different style to a song that everyone knows.

The final bows was done to Pink's hit "Never Gonna Not Dance Again".

I've mentioned some of the performers, but here's the full class of 2025.

Darcey Adams, Evie Andrew, Sophie Benner, Stephanie Booth, Scarlett Coleman-Smith, Hermione Mae, Amy Flatman, Grace Gent, Emily Holder, Megan Holder, Lucy Horton, Freya Ireson, Alannah Kight, Jasmine Leek, Hemi Lewis, Preston Nash, Esmie Smith-Cockayne, Bria Spencer, Jason Thompson and George Young.

The  Spotlight Tutors are Liam Petruccio-Hall (Drama), Bethany Wear (Dance/Ballet), Sophie Petruccio-Hall (Technique) and Maddie Pritchard (Tap).

Technical manager was Nigel Newton, the excellent and stylish Lighting Design is by Tom Mowat and the faultless Sound Design is by Rob Kettridge and SM and Sound 2 by Bronwen Webster. The show was supported by College Street Technical Services.

Creative Director is Amanda Hall, Assistant Creative Director is Liam Petruccio-Hall and Administrator/Costumes by Sophie Petruccio-Hall.

Another wonderful evening of quality entertainment, showcasing what Spotlight can do.

Sunday afternoon showcases the Inters talents, and I'll be there to do some future star spotting, and they have some fine role models to look up to.