THERE is a school of thought that says amateur theatre means ‘anything goes because they’re only doing it for fun’. If only the people who believe that could have seen this concert, which proved once again that this particular amateur company, with its excellent direction, choreography, discipline and, above all, professional attitude, can have fun but at the same time reach for the heights – and get there.
With a theme of ‘numbers’, the audience was treated to such gems as One Singular Sensation, Johnny One Note, Five Six Seven Eight, The Twelfth of Never, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Tea For Two, One Day More and a 42nd Street medley.
The production team – Joanne Chapman, John Stringer, Jean Chambers and Janne Carrington – plainly worked the company hard, but the pay-off spoke for itself. Almost everything was near-perfect, from the stunning costumes and slick entrances and exits to the high vocal standard, brilliant dance routines and sheer pzazz. Maybe the mix of body and hand-held microphones was not ideal, because those that were hand-held invariably produced a strangely muffled effect, but other than that I simply could not fault the evening.
Amateur? This company doesn’t know the meaning of the word.

Linda Kirkman
Courtesy of the Bournemout Daily Echo