Poole & Parkstone Productions [P&P Productions] 
Barrington Centre, Ferndown 
KD Johnson
20 November 2025
At the time of writing, I am just back from the opening night of P&P Productions latest concert show at The Barrington Theatre, Ferndown and what a great show it is!
Most amateur musical societies alternate between expensive named productions, which involve substantial investment in show licensing, royalties, set and costume hire, and concerts such as this one. Concert shows can be performed using a few numbers from well-known shows without having to pay royalties and licence fees, as long as they are obviously performed as a concert and not as any kind of reproduction of the copyrighted show.
Sometimes the concert is more or less a ragbag of “songs from the shows” with no clear theme but tonight’s has a loosely defined historical theme – moving through the history of the last few hundred years at various salient points and choosing songs from musical theatre shows set in those periods. It ranges from the reign of Henry VIII (songs from the musical Six) through the American Revolution (songs from Hamilton) and the French Revolution (songs from Les Misérables), calling briefly in at the Wild West and the late 19th century and moving on to the 20th century with songs from shows set in the 1910s, 20s, 30s, 2nd World War and beyond. I don’t want to give the whole plot away – come and see the show and BUY A PROGRAMME, which has all the info in it! Some of the songs are familiar and most of us know them or where they are from – others are not and we reach for the PROGRAMME (I can never understand why some people don’t buy one).
As we have come to expect from P&P, the production is vibrantly colourful, there are a huge number of well-rehearsed performers on stage, the choreography is brilliant and the sound from both the singers and the 6 piece band, led by Chris McDouall, knocks us out of our seats.
Act I features several numbers performed by or featuring a junior cast in numbers such as ‘My Favourite Things’, ‘Seize the Day’ and ‘Little People’ – the kids are well drilled and clearly enjoy the experience – coping well with an audio feedback problem that might have caused most of us to hesitate – but they plough on with the song perfectly. There are a few individuals that seem a little lost at times – but, given time and experience, they may be the stars of the future!
I think it is a good idea to restrict the children’s performances to the first act as then they can go home and be fresh for school tomorrow – while the adults can have some fun in Act II.
Notable also in Act I is the impressive sound in the ensemble numbers from Titanic, the Musical – everyone seems to know the words and the swell of the sea is evident in the choreography. Top marks from me.
Act II starts with a medley from the musical Six, which seems to be flavour of the month/year/decade at the moment. It is brilliantly performed by the six “Ex-Wives” Zoe Caswell, Abby Benkó-Robbins, Chloe Payne, Nichola Durham, Holly Jarman and Jordan Lindsay, and the addition of the 8 “Six Dancers” really peps it up. Credit here, as elsewhere, to Kellie Oxborrow for both direction and choreography.
I have seen ‘You’ll Be Back’ (from Hamilton) performed recently but the comedy repartee between the various competing kings in this show has to be seen to be believed – it is very good and I love it, love it, love it! Credit here to Simon Langford, Luke Earl, Lewis Baines, Tom Pitman and Paul Simkin as mad King George.
The advantage of having a live accompaniment is shown in ‘Anything You Can Do’ (from Annie Get Your Gun), when the always excellent Adrian Lane misses a cue … so the band play it again (twice) – you don’t get that from a backing track!
The counterpoint singing (I may have the wrong phrase there – but different parts of the cast are singing different words at the same time) in ‘Made in America’ (from Bonnie and Clyde) is impressive and the duet ‘Love Who You Love’ by Sizzle Benson and Pippa Quinton is a lovely sound.
Operation Mincemeat is very new to musical theatre and one that I haven’t seen (yet) but P&P have put together three numbers from the show. I love the put downs of Ian Fleming’s fictional spy James – err James??? – but the outstanding number in this set must be Kat Steele’s heart-rending performance of ‘Dear Bill’, which I think represents one of the made-up letters placed on the body to convince the Germans of its authenticity. A nod here to the tech crew – I love the rose gobos projected onto the proscenium in both this number and earlier in Jerry Herman’s ‘I Won’t Send Roses’.
The final set is a medley from Just for One Day – a jukebox musical (I haven’t seen this one either) about the original 1985 Live Aid concert and the very sparkly finale piece is from Tina: The Musical.
The directors, musicians, cast and crew can be very proud of this production. I seem to have given away most of the running order, but I would urge everyone, if you can, to come and see this marvellous show – and BUY A PROGRAMME, which is interesting, informative and I am sure a lot of work has gone into producing it!
The show runs again on Friday 21 November and twice on Saturday 22 November.
