The Newbury Operatic Society always put on highly entertaining productions and I was very pleased to have been invited with Edwina Cooper to attend the Pyjama Game on the evening of Friday the 11th April. On arrival, we met John Cole who is the President and he was pleased that we could come to the production.
We took our seats in the balcony from which we had a great view of the stage and orchestra. The conductor was Michael Evans with an orchestra of 17 musicians. They got the show off to a good start with the Overture and soon had our feet tapping. The first Act was divided into 10 scenes and when the curtain rose, the stage was set in the sewing room of the Sleep Tite pyjama factory, a very colourful scene with the cast and chorus in their 1950s clothes. The first ten scenes were full of great acting and songs, some of which we had heard before, such as I’m not at all in Her is and There once was a man. After the interval, we looked forward to Act 2 which had 9 scenes. The first was set in the Eagle Hall, where three ladies performed Steam Heat, a song and dance routine. It was well sung with precision choreography and it brought the house down! Other scenes followed until we found the cast in Hernando’s Hideaway and that fabulous song which went with it. All too soon, the show came to a close and we admired the high class performances of the three principals, Neil Harvey, Zoe Wells and Utku Er, who played Sid, Babe and Prez respectively. The chorus was excellent and sang with great feeling and at times passion! It was splendid to see seven of their youth group, Newbury Young Stars who seemed to enjoy being in the production.
We thoroughly enjoyed the performance and we will be going to their next production in the autumn which will be Jack the Ripper. We noted that the Young Stars will be performing Tin Pan Alli in August at the Arlington Arts Centre , which should be a good evening’s entertainment.
We took our seats in the balcony from which we had a great view of the stage and orchestra. The conductor was Michael Evans with an orchestra of 17 musicians. They got the show off to a good start with the Overture and soon had our feet tapping. The first Act was divided into 10 scenes and when the curtain rose, the stage was set in the sewing room of the Sleep Tite pyjama factory, a very colourful scene with the cast and chorus in their 1950s clothes. The first ten scenes were full of great acting and songs, some of which we had heard before, such as I’m not at all in Her is and There once was a man. After the interval, we looked forward to Act 2 which had 9 scenes. The first was set in the Eagle Hall, where three ladies performed Steam Heat, a song and dance routine. It was well sung with precision choreography and it brought the house down! Other scenes followed until we found the cast in Hernando’s Hideaway and that fabulous song which went with it. All too soon, the show came to a close and we admired the high class performances of the three principals, Neil Harvey, Zoe Wells and Utku Er, who played Sid, Babe and Prez respectively. The chorus was excellent and sang with great feeling and at times passion! It was splendid to see seven of their youth group, Newbury Young Stars who seemed to enjoy being in the production.
We thoroughly enjoyed the performance and we will be going to their next production in the autumn which will be Jack the Ripper. We noted that the Young Stars will be performing Tin Pan Alli in August at the Arlington Arts Centre , which should be a good evening’s entertainment.
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