View from the Green Room: Bright and colourful Dare to Dream
'Dare to Dream' was performed at Theatre Royal.
It’s best bib and tucker for all the young performers in the end-of-year Vicki Graham Stage School show because these young performers have a lot to show off. Quality singers and actors, along with the shakers and movers of the younger academy, perform a colourful and fun show for all the families that are crowding into the Theatre Royal tonight.
Vicki’s got two casts as well. One for the matinee show and another for the evening, that speaks volumes for the depth of talent in Tramore where Vicki’s stage school takes place.
Dare to Dream is a clever choice of show as it’s a potpourri of Disney hits that everyone in the audience knows - even the crinklies in the grandparent category, like your correspondent.
Disney’s Dare to Dream JR. is a 60-minute musical revue that follows an eager group of trainees on their first day at a fictional Walt Disney Imagineering Studio. The Imaginers help each other discover their dreams because “A dream is a wish your heart makes”. The dream is what’s important because the journey is what transforms the dreamers into achievers.
Rhian Whelan Bohan and George McEvoy narrate our way through the plotline. With the assistance of a host of other performers, and numerous choruses of Tot (Mickey & Mini Mouse), Junior (Junior High School Basketballer) and Ensemble (High School colourful teen), Imaginers sing, act and perform classic Disney tunes, such as When you wish upon a star…I just can’t wait to be King…Let it go…Friend like me…Hakuna Matata and Bare necessities and, of course, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
There’s a full cast Nonsense Melody, fronted by Mimi Gajic and Keeley McCann, that’s great fun as it builds and builds to full ensemble routines.
Also included are a couple of 'I am' numbers, like “When I am older” performed by the excellent Aoife Devlin and “Remember Me” from the talented Lucy Fitzgerald, who is joined by Harry Flanagan, Cian Ó Heithir and Rebecca Ward.
The “Mini mouse march” and the “Shake a feather” routines from the Mini Imaginers are a hoot and the full ensemble “I’ve got a dream” seems a perfect way to polish off a job well done.
Directors Paula Weldon and Vicki Graham move the show along at a cracking pace and choreographers Ali Reville, Rachel Dunne Phelan and Vicki Graham move the large casts in routines that never appear overcrowded or cluttered.
Big chorus numbers still allow for soloists to front the numbers from the apron of the stage in a way that appears natural and inventive.
George McGeary and Ava Kiely’s costumes make for a bright and quirky palate and give a fresh and colourful look to the show that reflects the upbeat attitude of the mostly teen cast.
Well done to all the cast and crew of the good ship 'Dare to Dream'.
