14 July 2014

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Review by Geraldine Durrant

SOME shows can be reviewed very simply with that over-used expression of surprise and delight Wow!

And Be My Guest was certainly one of them – a non-stop, come-out-humming-the-tunes, rollercoaster Wow! of a show.

Realising that a review of only three letters might disappoint as to the specifics however I will elaborate – although my difficulty with Be Our Guest was in the sheer quantity and quality of the evening’s entertainment.

It is hard to believe that the East Grinstead Youth Theatre Group has only been going five years given the range and diversity of the shows they have produced in that time, and which formed the basis for this ‘highlights’ concert

And highlights they really were, as show after show was reprised in a parade of favourites which included extracts from Seussical, Rent, Annie, We will Rock You, Chorus Line, Fame and Peter Pan among others.

The Company leapt on to the stage for a kick-ass performance of We Will Rock You and then moved seamlessly through their repertoire without a moment to catch breath.

Louise Spiller got the show off to a great start with a powerful rendition of Somebody to Love and Jamie Kaye’s athletic entrance was followed by a thrillingly defiant We Will Rock You.

As an ensemble the performers were astonishing well-drilled in their dance routines, and their choral singing was excellent – and as show after show unfolded I found myself wondering how they could possibly have had the time to rehearse so very many extracts to such a high standard of performance.

The sweet timbre of Daniel Chenery’s voice was perfect for Alone in the Universe, his lovely duet with ten-year-old Amber Titchener. And it is a strength of the company that they have such wide-ranging talent – students as young as five showed an astonishing degree of poise alongside their tutors, and Bullfrog graduates who had come back specially to reprise earlier roles in this special anniversary production.

And while it seems invidious to pick out any individual performers in a evening of uniform excellence I will just mention one or two.

The five little dancers in the Wizard of Oz sequence – Libby Howard, Holly Rees, Jonathan Reed, Olivia Breed and Henry Nott – earned their aaahs! for both proficiency and cuteness.

While tutor Adam Hoskins hilarious Maurice Chevalier-style solo as Lumiere, the candle from Beauty and the Beast, was as charming as it was funny as he led the ensemble laying out their fantasy feast.

Harriet Lake’s performance of Tomorrow, from Annie, was simply lovely as was Yasmin Mason’s Castle on a Cloud from Les Mis – two very young, and talented performers I will enjoy looking out for again.

But the climax, and the emotional heart of the evening came with extracts from Les Miserables.

An hilarious ensemble performance of Master of the House was followed by a solo from Charlie Edelsten. Charlie was not the most adept of the dancers in a company which does everything – but he certainly found his feet with Stars as Javert – the implacable policeman who knows all about the Law and nothing at all about Justice.

But it was Georgia Fawcett whose lovely voice got the tears flowing with I Dreamed a Dream, and then to complete the emotional devastation Adam Hoskins’ Bring Him Home – which I have never heard bettered.

It was stunning stuff even if it did send me sniffing off into the dark – where the car park, always the place to overhear what people really thought of the show, was ringing with plaudits.