"NAT Youth Act Two Spectacular"

Nottingham Arts Theatre.

It will be no surprise to anyone who knows me when I say that i love showcases like these. It's brilliant to see young actors perform vignettes from stage and musical theatre, highlighting individuals' talents, but also gives these young performers a taste of theatre that sometimes they may not experience until later on down their theatrical highway. This showcase is bigger and even better than the previous one; something I thought would be incredibly difficult to achieve after seeing their last one.

Thirty seven various scenes performed by fifty six young stars. Another nice thing about these type of shows is that, over the years, I've seen so many of them start off as newbies, and then see them appearing in their final year show. Seeing them develop and grow over the period of time makes me feel almost like a proud stage parent.

I was given a great feeling that this cast were embracing the camper side of musical theatre, and that brought out the more adventurous side of the performers, as well as the cheeky and fun side, with a few of the performances being gender swap, making these sections even more exciting and different to watch.

Anyway, I'll try and mention as many of these performances as I can.

In any musical show, it's always good to get big openings for each of the two acts, and we saw that this afternoon. Opening the show with "Wilkommen" from "Cabaret" was a great choice and great to see Jack Kent taking centre stage with this one.

I have many favourite performances in this spectacular, and the next came with "Little Girls" from "Annie", performed by Arlo Perrons. I've seen and reviewed Arlo on quite a few occasions, but this performance was breath takingly good. He looked absolutely incredible and you could hear a great confidence in his voice as he strutted around the stage, and in those heels as well!

In "Worst Pies In London" from "Sweeney Todd", Connie Tegerdine serenaded and we got to see the first appearance of another one of my favourite young performers, Jamie Adlam, who has naturally funny bones.

The scene from "Guys n Dolls", "Luck Be A Lady" by both boy groups, 4 and 5, featured James Cragg, who I don't think that I had noticed in previous shows, but he has a really strong voice. 

Group 4 and 5 girls retaliated with an extract from "Made In Dagenham" and featured Eliza Szejda, Chloe Crofts, Connie Tegerdine, Joy Clayton and Amelia Scurfield.

The first big surprise, and a really pleasant surprise it was also, was the gender swap version of "Cell Block Tango" from "Chicago" with the seven hardened women on trial were swapped for Lenny Brady, Oliver Sheard, James Cragg, Jack Kent, Arlo Perrons, Liam Brown - who has shot up since I first saw him playing "Oliver" a few years ago - and Julian Magda. None nervous about injecting a bit of camp into this performance, making a fun segment from the musical even more fun.

One of my favourite writers for musical theatre is Jason Robert Brown. One of my favourite of his musicals is "The Last 5 Years", so I was over the moon to see "Summer In Ohio" included from that musical and performed by Kate Russell.

The Group 5 Girls then danced to Michael Buble's "Feeling Good", almost kaleidoscopic in their musicality.

I am skipping over a few of the vignettes because I'd be here all night typing away and you'd be dropping to sleep from reading if I didn't. Anyway, I digress. My next highlight was from a musical that some musical theatre fans have a marmite approach to, but there are some very good songs in the musical "Titanic" and "The Proposal/The Night Was Alive" was performed beautifully by Jamie Adlam and Liam Brown. When Jamie isn't showing his funny bones, he shows another side of his talents as a very good singer of serious songs. Liam has blossomed into leading man material and his voice has also matured wonderfully, and this ballad shows both Jamie and Liam in excellent voice.

"Backstage At The Ritz" shows a more comedic side to some of these young performers. James, Kate, Eliza, Liam, Arlo, Julian and Oliver, especially the latter pair.

Closing the first act was a song from "Pippin" called "Magic To Do" by Group 4 featuring Amelie, Kayla, Sophie, Zach and Giles.

I mentioned earlier that the opening numbers should fizz, and it certainly did when starting with "My Dead Gay Son" from "Heathers". A brilliant number which also featured Jamie and Lenny. You could see the fun this pair were having with this comedy number, and also showed the start of Lenny's dance energy revving up from the idling position... more of Lenny's grooving later!

One of the many highlight songs in "Legally Blonde" has to be the "Bend and Snap" section and we had even more fun with Paulette and Elle with the Group 5 ladies featuring Kate, Eliza, Chloe, Grace and Elizabeth.

Showing the variety that NAT Youth offers, Jonah Williams joined the Songbirds on stage for a very different piece called "Vuelie" from "Frozen".

"Little Shop Of Horrors" will always be in my Top 5 favourite musicals and the inclusion of the title song, featuring Ace, Zach, Morgan, Sophie and Caitlin was only surpassed by one of the best renditions of "Suddenly Seymour" I have heard. Zach and Grace's voices were beautifully in synch with each other, showing each other's power and control over their vocals, giving me tingles.

Act two just continues with the powerful performances with another one of my favourite songs from an incredible musical, "Miss Saigon" with the song "Bui Doi", performed by the Group 5 boys and especially the power and emotive voice of Oliver Sheard. I knew that Oliver had a good voice, but hearing the passion that he put into his solo performance just escalated his vocal talents for me, wonderfully supported by the rest of the group.

Now, I never fail to leave any showcase without being educated to something new, and today it was via a piece called "9 People's Favourite Thing" from "Title Of Show" performed by Liam, James, Eliza and Caitlin.

I have not really mentioned the drama pieces that were performed this afternoon, I loved the section from Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" as well as the other pieces, but there was one that really stuck out for me, and this again was another new one to me. "The Dead Eye Boy Monologue", performed by Oli was something that I would like to see more of, if there is a longer version of this monologue. Wonderfully delivered by Oli.

Showing off their dancing, as well as singing skills were James and Kayla in a section from "La La Land" in the number "A Lovely Night".

Earlier I mentioned the gender swap for "Cell Block Tango", well this time around it was time for the girls in Group 5, featuring Chloe, to take on "Gee Officer Krupke" from "West Side Story", and they looked to have real fun with this one.

Another real highlight for me was the incredibly intricate "Your Fault/Last Midnight" from Sondheim's "Into the Woods". The timing for the vocalists in this is exquisitely timed and featured some amazing vocals from Zach, Lenny, Joy, Amelie and Amelia. Absolutely stunning sound and speed from this group.

A brilliant comedy duet by Oliver and Connie H with "Therapy" from "Tick Tick Boom", with plenty of visual humour.

"It's All About The Green" from "The Wedding Singer" is just another highlight among highlights for me. Group 4 brought incredible energy to this number, and when you think of the previous sections that were also full on, this group ramped up the revs, and this is where I will also mention the energy that Lenny brought. That young man just grooved all the way through this number. Just looking at his face while he was dancing in this scene showed that this must have been one of his favourite pieces because he looked to be in his own little groove room. This piece was brilliantly choreographed by Keira Dormer-Hazell.

Slowing things down was a piece from "Come From Away", which also contained touches of comedy, which again was performed with a lovely subtleness in the face of the adversity within the theme of this modern musical. Group 5 smashed this piece.

And so we come to the final number which was from the musical that everyone is talking about of late - no not "Jamie" but Evan, "Dear Evan Hansen". Everyone, including the tutors joined together on stage for the emotive "You Will Be Found", and what a gorgeous noise this group of young performers made, closing the show in true style.

I've mentioned many of the young people, but this is the full cast....

Group 4.

Ace Merkelt, Amelia Scurfield, Amelie Adams, Caitlin Young, Cleo Sims, Connie Tegerdine, Jamie Adlam, Joy Clayton, Katie Lister, Kayla Burgess, Lenny Brady, Libby Thompson, Morgan Spencer, Sophie Murphy, Roxy Smith and Zach Silcock.

Group 5.

Arlo perrons, Chloe Crofts, Connie Hatchett, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Eliza Szejda, Grace Eccles-Jones, Jack Kent, James Cragg, Julian Magda, Kate Russell, Liam Brown, Oliver Sherad and Olivia Bott.

Songbirds.

Amelie Booth, Atia Morrell, Darcey Orwin, Elizabeth Kenny, Emily Ashton, Elizabeth Rhodes, Fergus Hillery, La-mai McKenzie, Lauren Varley, Leo Capaldi, Louis Dickson, Mia Woodward, Orla Donohoe, Polly Sibley, Sophia Smith and Zane Page.

Songsters.

Connie Hatchett, Connie Tegerdine, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Emeilia Pound, Evelyn Byfield, Flossie Bailey, Florence Everitt, Jack Kent, James Cragg, Maisie Fletcher and Roxy Smith.

Someone who I know will be especially proud of the way these young people performed today was the Youth Co-ordinator, Jessica Royce, and so she should be as well. There are many stars that made this show very special, but these stars are part of a wonderfully bright constellation, whose light is made all the more brighter by the amount of stars that make up that constellation.

The Tutors.

Jessica Royce (Dance and Musical Theatre Lead).

Keira Dormer-Hazell (Drama Lead and Musical Theatre Tutor).

Jonah Williams (Music Lead).

Eleanor Carty (Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre Tutor).

Charlotte Clay (Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre Tutor).

Stephanie Gook (Stage Manager).

Jessica Royce (Deputy Stage Manager).

There were some brilliant costumes on show provided by the Nottingham Arts Theatre Youth Group and Company.

Lighting and Sound by Evie Webster and George Wilson. A  few crackly mic packs but with all that energetic choreography and dramaturg, you can forgive that.

What was also lovely to see was an almost full auditorium supporting with great enthusiasm. This kind of show is perfect for Directors and talent spotters and believe me, there is a hell of a lot of talent on this stage.