Reviews

When I reviewed this society’s Sounds of the ’50s and ’60s just a year ago, I regretted that there were only two performances, both on the same day. Exactly the same thought struck me this year: there was so much talent, skilful direction and sheer hard work on show that it seems a pity that it was all over so quickly. On the other hand, a slightly disappointing audience for the evening performance suggests the reason why; this is one of the best musical theatre companies in the area and it richly deserves greater local support. As well as some

It’s a brave company that puts on a show with an entire cast on roller skates, but perhaps an insane one that also expects them to be able to sing and act. BMT Productions does it superbly. It would be very unfair to compare this production to the London or touring shows, but for an amateur society to perform it, with most of the cast never having skated before, is breath-taking. Starlight Express is another fabulous collaboration of Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe (Cats, Phantom etc) and although many of the songs are unfamiliar, they are all enjoyable. The music is

This is a most appropriate play to be staged in a village hall, since the plot revolves around the bumping off, one by one, of the members of the hall committee in the village of Chortelby. Fortunately, crime writer Agatha Crusty is paying a visit to Chortelby and it is she who sees through the distractions and red herrings and names the murderer. It is extremely light fare and there is no point in pretending otherwise. Similarly, the members of Double Act are on stage mainly for their own enjoyment and that of family, neighbours and friends rather than because

Milton Musical Society’s autumn review production is a collection of musical songs and sketches that try to get behind the mask into what people are really thinking and believing. The 30-strong cast give us some moments of absolute joy and some moments that are not so joyous. The piece starts with a whole company rendition of ‘Masquerade’ from The Phantom of the Opera. On opening night there were some sound issues and the cast looked so embarrassed as they just stood there, waiting for the music to start, but when the song got going and the company started to sing

Deeply evangelical 1950s Louisiana, in the American Deep South, is the setting for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical version of Mary Hayley Bell’s novel and Sir Richard Attenborough’s film of the same name. An impoverished farmer, Boone, and his three children have recently buried their family’s matriarch, a personal tragedy that they are all struggling to cope with in various ways. Christmas is approaching and the children are desperate for a miracle to restore their faith in life. When they find an injured man (‘The Man’) seeking refuge in their barn, they somehow come to the conclusion that he is the

As far as I remember, this production’s sub-title, ‘A classic comedy of bad manners’, was added by RAODS rather than by the author, Noël Coward, but it is an exact summing up of the play. But bad manners and the self-centredness that produces them aren’t really very funny, even when expressed in Coward’s brilliantly brittle dialogue, and therein lies the challenge: to make deeply dislikeable people at least tolerable, if not actually attractive. This production meets the challenge head-on and as a result it is not only very funny, it creates in the audience a smidgen of sympathy towards what