Brilliant Broadway Boulevard
Everyone gets a chance to perform in this show.
Jack Cunningham’s stage school Soul Dance Arts is producing a conveyor belt of top-class performers that can sing, act and probably dance up and down walls.
Seasoned performers tonight are watching in awe at the depth and range of talent on the Garter Lane stage in a show that has breathless pace and is filled with the joy of performance.
Everyone gets a chance to perform in this show.
Five Annies – Lilly Bardgett, Faye Mackey, Olivia Hollyhead, Erica Ryan and Lucy Comerford – belt out solos in a classic ‘Tomorrow’.
Four Beasts – Joe Shanahan, Cian Kennedy, Sam Marsden and Billy Dwyer – share verses in, ‘If I Can’t Love Her’, from Beauty & the Beast.
Mary Duggan, Charli Hearne, Jaimie O’Loughlin and Sinéad Carey, backed by a teen ensemble, rocked Garter Lane with a gospel belter in, ‘I will follow Him’, from Sister Act as did Nicola Romejko, Holly Grant Layla Roche Caulfield with ‘Take Me Back to Manhattan’, from Anything Goes.
Alex Healy, Ana Strappe, Caoimhe O’Neill and Hannah Power shared the Les Mis classic, ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, while other collaborations worked on ‘Anthem’ from Chess and ‘Wait for Me’ from Hadestown.
The variety of song and dance numbers is astonishing.
There are huge ballads from the excellent Mary Duggan in ‘As if We Never Said Goodbye’ from Sunset Boulevard and huge Cabaret performances in Mein Herr from Olivia Walsh and a huge ‘Maybe This Time’ from Ella Fewer.
These are not easy numbers to sing and I’m wowed by the confidence of these young singers on the apron of the stage.
In the middle of all the excitement and razzamatazz of Aladdin and Oliver Medleys, there’s still time for quiet moments.
Little Jack O’Brien tapped our way into our hearts as he dreams, ‘When I Get My Name in Lights’, and Charles Ware Murphy melted hearts with ‘Where is Love?’
The energy of the huge ensemble numbers is infectious.
The dance routines constantly change the picture with simple and complex routines swopping effortlessly and different dance troupes flood the stage with presence and pace and pzazz.
‘Take me Back to Manhattan…Aladdin…Live in Living Colour’… leave the audience breathless and asking for more.
And there’s always more in this production.
There’s a smashing arrangement for the Monkees classic ‘I’m a Believer’ with tuneful harmonies and punchy rhythms that’s just perfect for a dazzling dance routine that involves just about everyone.
Joe Shanahan and Adam Cliffe’s duet about what makes a musical is funny and clever and a great opening to the show and the side flats, illuminated by a row of huge bulbs, brought me right back to those great ACEC Tops openings that used the same idea back in the early seventies.
The final ‘Colour of Love’ from Boop the Musical is a riot of colour and fun with bouncy rhythms and an exceptional routine that just built and built and built.
And all this in front of a huge chorus that belted out the tune.
Costumes are rich, colourful and tasteful and are perfect for the period.
Jack’s production is powerful and packed with talent that leaves everyone in awe of what they’re watching.
He’s been nurturing all this talent for a number of years and these young stars bring joy and love to everything they do onstage.
Musical theatre in Waterford was never blessed with such abundance of talent.
