Saturday, May 24, 2025

Review: From Venice to Broadway


From Venice to Broadway is a musical theatre revue put together by local amateur dramatics group the Chesham Musical Theatre Company. The theme for this show was travel and they selected a marvellous range of popular songs to explore various modes of transport and geographical locations.


The atmosphere they created was really welcoming and inclusive. It felt like you were in a family member's living room during a jolly party and everybody was being invited to take a turn at entertaining the crowd. The floor was open to all and indeed everyone had their moment to shine in the spotlight.


First up was an ensemble number: We Open in Venice from Kiss Me Kate. Then Francis, Hollie and Linda performed the touching ballad Another Suitcase from Evita. Chris (incidentally the same Chris who became the star of AdLibretto’s improvised musical at the Little Theatre on the Park a mere half hour earlier, Chesham is a tight knit town!) used a backing track to share his version of the James Bond classic From Russia with love.


As is apparently customary with this company, they included a little bit of Gilbert and Sullivan. They chose We sail The Ocean Blue, before Alli and Tim had us all giggling with a duet: A Couple of Swells.


Linda transformed the Queen song Bicycle into an avant garde poem by reading the lyrics out sans music, while sporting a cycle helmet. Safety first! Then Emily impressed with her feather boa and lovely soprano voice on Nicer In Nice from The Boyfriend.


The evening continued with Oklahoma, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Calamity Jane, even a bit of Pam Ayres and some music hall. There was genuinely something for everyone, and the night was drawn to a close with the rousing You’ll Never Walk Alone. Passionate calls for encore unfortunately couldn’t be responded to because many of the performers had to get to another one of the fringe shows! Therefore it's genuinely no exaggeration to say it was all in all a delightful evening's entertainment which literally left the audience wanting more.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Review: The Electric Head

  The Electric Head, improvisational comedy duo Al Ronald and Cy Henty,  create an entirely original and never to be performed against play ...