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Show: Laine Leaps Ahead – Summer Production
Society: Laine Theatre Arts (student productions)
Venue: Epsom Playhouse
Credits: Various
Type: Sardines
Author: Chris Abbott
Performance Date: 18/06/2015
Laine Leaps Ahead – Summer Production
Chris Abbott | 20 Jun 2015 10:36am
Most reviewers approach student showcase performances with some trepidation; the standard is usually high – as it certainly was here – but how to give credit to individuals in such a vast and talented cast?
Only a few comments, then, about named performers, but I was greatly impressed by the verve, enthusiasm, professionalism, talent and above all discipline shown by this year’s cohort.
I suspect that not enough theatregoers know about the opportunity that performances like this offer, and many of the audience were highly partisan friends and families of the performers. General theatregoers who did get to the performance – especially those with a liking for musical theatre – were rewarded with a varied and fast-moving homage to a wide range of musical theatre pieces.
Laine Leaps Ahead was structured as a series of selections from particular musicals, sometimes neatly segueing one into the other. Gerry Zuccarrello’s choreography of an impressive acrobatic number for some of the boys began the show, and indeed acrobatic dancing was a particular strength of the evening. This was nicely contrasted with a very controlled and sensitive approach to Mr Bojangles from Filippo Coffano Andreolli, followed by the first of the evening’s vocal selections.
Fiesta Cubana introduced at least some of the girls, in a fast-paced section that built to an effective crescendo. Vocals and dance featured in selections from Washington Heights, a show well-suited to the age range of these students. Fraser Callaghan and Tom Ping gave a beautiful account of The Pearl Fishers duet, not an easy height to scale in a performance where this was the only example of opera.
The first ballet piece followed, an exceptional pas de deux from Harriet Jarvis with, at the performance I saw, Ben Brown (I saw Company A and have therefore assumed I saw the first named of alternates in the cast list). These two young dancers held concentration impressively and provided an oasis of calm.
After another vocal interlude we were offered an interesting and well-danced tribute to Agnes de Mille, choreographed by Damian Czarnecki but rather clunkily interrupted by voice over from de Mille herself. What she had to say was fascinating, but the sudden introduction of recorded voice seemed intrusive; perhaps the words could have been projected instead?
A selection from Dreamgirls followed, led by a trio of vocalists: Jasmin Minjoot, the sassy and audience-engaging Jalisa Andrews and a heartfelt and powerful Eloise Davies (last seen by this reviewer as an excellent understudy Wicked Queen at the Richmond panto).
After more ballet and vocals, a lively tap number showed off another strength of this multi-talented case, before the first act ended with a tribute to previous students now working professionally.
The now even more hyper audience returned for a second act that began strongly with a well-staged (Tudor Davies) selection from Miss Saigon. It is difficult to interpolate more dramatic musicals like this in a showcase, but the choral singing from the boys in particular was very effective. Indeed, it would have been good to have had a few more examples during the evening of choral singing, perhaps from British composers like Howard Goodall and in future performances to see extracts from some edgier shows like Spring Awakening, Rent, Urinetown or Book of Mormon.
Tap at its best is not just performance but communication between performers, and that was certainly the case in the short piece that followed from Leslie Garcia Bowman, Sam Thoburn and Filippo Coffano Andreoli, providing the proverbial 9 o’clock moment (well, 9.15) that stops the show. Musical theatre collectors in the audience will have been pleased to then hear a selection from Notre Dame, followed by the rather more well-known Step in Time. Tudor Davies’ raunchy Fosse-inspired version of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious stopped the show for a second time, the infectious delight of the performers being shared by the audience.
After an Irish Dance-inspired selection and some more solo numbers – including a powerful ballet solo from Josh Denyer – we moved on to an extensive selection from Nine and then to the finale, with the whole company on stage together. I have no idea how they all fitted in back stage…
So – how to review a showcase? Well, it must give a platform for new performers to show a range of skills, and this was certainly the case. It should be slickly produced and professionally presented – very much the case with the vast experience of the team at Laine Theatre Arts under the direction of Betty Laine and Tudor Davies with musical direction from Colin Warnock and Patrick Isbell.
And – for the paying public – it should be an entertaining evening. Scoring top marks on all these headings, this showcase should be a regular diary entry for anyone in the Epsom area.
- : admin
- : 18/06/2015