Reviews

The interesting concept of the play was, as the name implied, a journey through history looking at how our style of comedy evolved from the Ancient Greeks, such as Plato, to what it is today. Obviously, it had to be abridged for such a long period of time but references were made to many of our present day news attracting people – mainly politicians. I am sure that many of the references to famous, or infamous, people of the past lost some effect as they were not known to many.

GCLT have a winner with their second show of the year. The Sound Of Musicals covers the 60 years that the theatre has been presenting musicals as part of its Playbill and this production covers approximately 40 songs from some of their 35 musicals in a concert format.

Shane Caddaye narrates and leads a cast of 5 ladies and 2 other men in this nostalgic trip down “musical memory lane”.

The artists are Michelle Cook, Steffanie Kriz, Naomi Mole, Elizabeth Johnson, Ali Wilby with Brad Kendrick and George Pulley, in addition to Shane.

Joy Sweeney calls on her memories of the movie The Long, Long Trailer and an early production of Caravan (it was first produced by The Ensemble Theatre in 1983) to explain her fascination with caravans – even though she has never been on a caravan holiday! But obviously, the play struck a chord.

Dusty Springfield is credited with saying, ‘It's marvellous to be popular, but foolish to think it will last.’ Little did she realise that her fame would last and she would become a pop icon whose music is still popular today.

Northern Light Theatre Company took a gamble presentingDusty. The show relies on a singer/actress who can belt out 24 of the pop legend’s hits plus carry out numerous wig and costume changes while still giving us a realistic character, from Dusty’s early beginnings through to fame, demise and resurgence.