"A Night At The Theatre" by Nottingham Arts Theatre Youth Group.
Nottingham Arts Theatre.

This show is the result of 8 months of work, one hour a week, which works out to be about fifteen hours of practice, but when you see the results of that practice, it belies the short time these kids have had to get to the standard seen tonight.

The show is a showcase of various musicals and scenes from plays, solos, duets, and ensemble numbers but all equally enchanting with the second part getting everyone in a Christmassy mood with the full company singing "Here Comes Santa Claus".

What I love with these kind of shows is you get to see the more confident performers upfront, but you also get to see kids who may not have a massive amount of confidence, but who have a love of performing and they can be spotted in several sections. I know that this is massively important to them, and the theatre because you can teach technique but you can't teach someone to have a passion for performing.

I have had the pleasure of seeing kids and adults move from the back row of an ensemble piece to taking centre stage, overcoming shyness and lack of confidence to being, and loving centre stage adoration. That is what schemes like this is all about, boosting confidence and spotting talent; and there is talent within this group.

Pieces from modern musicals like "Book Of Mormon", "Dear Evan Hansen" and "The Greatest Showman" are performed alongside classic songs from musicals like "West Side Story", "Wizard Of Oz" and "Thoroughly Modern Millie".

Scenes from "Death Of A Salesman", "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" and "Charlie Chaplin" show what we can expect from the older performers in the future. Jack Symington, Kate Russell and Pepper Uleberg-Smith get to show their acting ability as well as their ear for accents.

I must mention Lucy Henthorn-Lee because she did a lovely version of "Maybe", one of my favourite songs from "Annie", and who could not fail to smile with the ensemble who presented "Fat Sam's Grand Slam" from "Bugsy Malone". Leila Bedford delivered a lovely solo with "Beauty & The Beast" and Hattie Campion shone as Millie in the "Thoroughly Modern Millie" section.

The ensembles were fantastic and they show what an immense amount of hard work is poured into these shows. Hard work from the Director Jessica Royce, assisted by Will Newsham-Kent, with the choreography by Jessica.

With this amount of young performers, stage manager Gareth Morris had his hands full, but he made it all work, smoothly.

Thanks to College Street Nottingham for the loan of the microphones, which really did make all the difference in hearing (most) of these young voices. Blending the sounds was sound operative Rob Kettridge,and providing the lights was Oliver Read.

I enjoyed every second of this show and applaud every one of the children who took to the stage for our entertainment, as well as recognising the work that is put in by the teachers, chaperones, production team and technical crew involved with the Nottingham Arts Theatre Youth Group.