"Bring On The Musicals - A Soiree Of Summer Songs"
4th Wall Theatrics.
Bonington Theatre.
This production really made the perfect start to my weekend for a few reasons, and I'll tell you why.
First was that when I got to Bonington Theatre there were a few people of whom I have not seen for a while, and I love catching up with people before a show.
Secondly, I get to see quite a few showcase shows for younger theatre groups, which I love because I love "star spotting" among these young performers, but this evening was a showcase of people of varied ages. from those of who may have just left their teenage years, right up to the older performer, even older than I am! And there are not many of these kind of shows knocking about.
Thirdly, I knew every single piece that was performed tonight. It's not that often that there are pieces that I don't know in showcases, and when there are it's a lovely surprise to me and I treat it as an education for myself.
4th Wall Theatrics are a new theatre group consisting of many well known faces from local stages and this showcase gave them the chance to, not only entertain, but to show off the new group and what they can do and what we can expect from them. If tonight is anything to go by, there's a lot of fun and talent to see and hear; but I knew that would be the case anyway because of their individual theatre history.
The agenda tonight consisted of songs from musicals, mainly concentrating on the more well-established musicals, another thing that isn't always recognised in compiling the show playlist, that said you can see that a great deal of thought has gone into the songs, the musicals and the running order of those songs and performances.
When I compiled the first playlist for my Wednesday evening radio show on Nottingham Hospitals Radio (8pm till 9) about the musicals and musical theatre, my first choice was "Be Our Guest" from Disney's "Beauty & The Beast" because it's the perfect introduction song. The same song was performed to open, and introduce the cast of 4th Wall Theatrics, and straight away they had us.
I love a good harmony group and Dawn McGlashan, Pippa Ward and Emma Nicol took us back to the age of Glen Miller with "Chatanooga Choo Choo".
Then came the full on singalongs starting with the whole cast taking us on a "Summer Holiday" followed by Roy Smith and Barry Hobbs bringing us sunshine, Morecambe and Wise style. The sunshine didn't stop there though because Dawn joined forces with Christine Boothe with "The Sun Has Got It's Hat On".
One of my favourite niche musicals is one by a brilliant writer Jason Robert Brown, and called "The Last 5 Years", and there's a great, fun song in the soundtrack called "A Summer In Ohio" which Emily Hudson performed perfectly.
Some people may not know that the Katrina & The Waves song "Walking On Sunshine" was used as part of a jukebox musical, also called "Walking On Sunshine", so this choice ticked both boxes of being from a musical and being summery; this version fronted by Emme Gunn.
Next up came a medley of Disney songs from "Moana", "Aladdin" and "The Little Mermaid" sung by Emily, Isobel, Emme and Amy Rogers-Gee. I've not seen Amy sing solo on stage for a very long while as she has been so busy over the years working behind the scenes, so it was nice to be reminded what a lovely voice she has.
Act One ended with another medley, this time from the film "Mary Poppins", which featured the vocal talents of Emma, Sam Howard, Pippa and Paul Mappleforth. Paul is a new name to me but he makes a great first impression, and not only with his voice. Paul knows how to move and he always looks as if he is out for a night of fun on the dancefloor. That man can not keep still and all the way through looks to be having the time of his life on stage. You know how there's always one person at any party that is first on the dancefloor and last to leave, that is what I imagine Paul is like. He is an infectious fun bundle of energy and I can't wait to see him in future productions.
Act two opened with Paul, Roy and Barry crooning about the sad tale of Lola from "Copacabana", another chance to see Paul "snakehips" Mappleforth grooving to the disco beat.
The singalongs were well under way as Barry came back to belt out "New York, New York"; I imagine that there were quite a few legs that had to be restrained in the audience to stop them from high-kicking the seats in front during this one!
Sam took centre stage after this with a stomping version of Murray Head's "One Night In Bangkok" from the musical "Chess". Lloyd-Webber songs are never the easiest to sing but Sam made this quasi-rap musical theatre song simply slip off the tongue easily.
Dawn, Emily, Emme and Emma then took us back in time with a Motown and soul medley from the movie "Sister Act" from "My Guy" to "I Will Follow Him" in the film's "Lounge Medley", their voices blending Supremely!
Pippa then slowed the pace down and raised the temperatures with "Too Darn Hot" from "Kiss Me Kate", but "Some Like It Hot", especially the way Emma made this Monroe tune sizzle.
Emme and Pippa backed Sam with The Trammps 1976 hit "Disco Inferno", carrying the heat link on, and I finally after all these years heard the lyrics properly, thanks to the excellent quality of the sound system at Bonington Theatre as well as the clarity of Sam, Emme and Pippa's voices. "Disco Inferno" if you don't remember comes from the film "Saturday Night Fever".
Another massive blockbuster film from the seventies was of course "Grease", and linking into the heat and summer theme, 4th Wall gave us "Summer Nights" and "We Go together".
All too soon the evening drew to a close with a move from "Grease" to Greece, the location of course for the musical "Mamma Mia" and the whole cast performed a medley of Abba songs, closing with Pippa, Amy and Emily taking leads on "Thank You For The Music".
It was like the best musical theatre disco ever; I just need the massive megamix which include all of these songs.
One person that I have not mentioned is the Master Of Ceremonies for the evening, Nik Hudson, who seamlessly blended comedy, wit and style to link the performers and the performances. And his jokes were fresh as well.
The cast for the show were Amy Rogers-Gee, who was also the Producer for the event, Barry Hobbs, Christine Boothe - so good to see you back on stage Christine, Dawn McGlashan, Emily Hudson, Emma Nicol, Emme Gunn, Isobel Munden, Paul Mapplethorpe, Pippa Ward, Roy Smith, Sam Howard, and of course Nik Hudson (thanks for the mention, Sir).
The Sound Design, which was very clean and crisp was by Bob Betts.
Lighting Design was by G Boichi-Giovarni.
A show that was all bangers and no fillers. Look out for future productions by 4th Wall Theatrics, I know that I will.
