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The View From The Stalls, Suffolk Street Queensway, Birmingham (2026)

19/08/2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A superb production of a musical choc-full of famous Queen songs performed by a talented young cast

With the story and script by Ben Elton, We Will Rock You takes the audience on a journey into a future world where one global corporation named Globalsoft rules, AI is king and music is effectively banned as are all instruments. Songs and lyrics are hidden away in secret vaults never to be heard. Unless…

We may be 300 years into the future, but the key to unlocking individualism lies with the music of Queen who, fortuitously, have an amazing number of varied hit tracks which form the soundtrack to what is effectively a vast jukebox musical. The two main characters are Galileo Figaro and Scaramouche (Kai Haines and Cloe Pitt/Felicia Fincher) in a pairing which moves seamlessly between a dislike for each other and lust for each other. Galileo has dreams which he cannot make head nor tail of, formed mainly of song titles and bits of lyrics and these elements are part of the laugh-out-loud humour of the show. After all, before deciding on calling her “Scaramouche”, an alternative put forward was “Ernie, the fastest milkman in the West” - a song title most of the young cast would probably never have heard of! There are plenty of these scattered around the script, such as why are people interested in Blue Suede Shoes and suddenly blurting out, for no reason, "I am a walrus"!. Working for the Corporation are Killer Queen and Khashoggi (Hope Brotherhood and Aqueal Blandfordh) who will do all in their power to stop this underground movement by the so-called Bohemians, named after historical musicians and led by Brit(ney Spears) and Oz(zie Osbourne) (Ted Rowe and Lily Quinney). One of those, Buddy (Santiago Marskell), has some inkling of what things were like in the old days, hilariously looking much like a Status Quo roadie in the process! Others, such as Mick Jagger, Madonna, Boy George and David Bowie also make an appearance.

For many of the cast, this would be amongst their first appearances on stage in front of a live audience whilst others are old hands (Ted Rowe and Kai Haines were Jesus and Judas in last year's Jesus Christ Superstar and Aqueal Blandford was on stage just a couple of weeks ago in The Sound Of Music).

The songs themselves have been cleverly crafted into the script by Ben Elton (and regularly updated) and form the perfect vehicle for not only heartfelt solos or duets but also many rousing ensemble pieces. And the music of Queen needs to be played loud so it is good that the whole thing has been put together by Andy Reiss as Director and Musical Director (with a great 6-piece band) and Katie Leeming as choreographer, both of whom are also responsible for the long-running Beyond The Barricade (which returns to Malvern for one night only on November 24th and features some of the Young company). And of course there is only one songs which could possibly end the musical - they performed it brilliantly to a standing ovation

It is very encouraging to see a large young cast like this take on a huge musical show and attract big enthusiastic audiences, a sure sign that the future of musicals is safe in their hands.

Malvern Theatres Young Company

All reviews are available on the website: www.theviewfromthestalls.org.uk

19/08/2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A thoroughly enjoyable evening of top-class sophisticated entertainment

If you have only seen Helen George as Call The Midwife's Nurse Trixie Franklin, you may be in for a surprise when, in High Society, she takes on the role of socialite Tracy Lord, which requires not only acting and dancing skills but singing too. But with previous experience in other musicals such as The King and I, she seamlessly becomes a woman on the cusp of marriage whose life suddenly becomes rather confusing and complicated as she ends up with not just one but two other suitors, just hours before the big event in the family mansion in Newport, USA.

The first of these is the ex-husband who was so devasted by the break up that he went off on his yacht vowing never to return to dry land. Julian Ovenden plays Dexter Haven with both compassion and a little bit of naughtiness, ensuring the audience is on his side. Which is more than be said for her actual fiancé George Kittredge (on opening night played by George Bray) - as dull as dishwater (the character, not the actor!), you wonder how she ever got involved with him (money springs to mind). Then there is the interloper Mike Connor with his partner in crime Liz Imbrie (Freddie Fox and Carly Mercedes Dyer) who are there because a sub-plot introduces a blackmail element relating to Tracy's father Seth (Malcolm Sinclair). However, our Tracy inevitably falls for him hook, line and sinker leaving the following day's events in disarray. Other characters worthy of mention are Uncle Willie (Nigel Lindsay as the sort of funny Uncle everyone would like to have!) and Tracy's younger but knowledgable sister Dinah (Naomi Pacquette).

As you might expect from a prestigious comedy musical such as this (with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and coming direct from the West End), the set is sumptuous with two staircases, pillars and a central balcony filling the stage as well as a huge tree which descended at one point and a pool area with sun loungers and the edge of the swimming pool - clever stuff!

Equally as impressive is the number of famous songs which the show consists of - Who wants to be a millionaire, Well did you evah?, I've got you under my skin, I love Paris - the list is very impressive for a single show. Many of those lead to some excellent dance routines involving most if not all of the cast - almost 30 - plus some of the 13 orchestra members who regrouped on stage to form a jazz band.

This is definitely a show to put a smile on your face and have you humming the tunes afterwards!

Note: ATG Entertainment require the following statement. This review is an advertisement and has been incentivised by the provision of tickets.

The Alexandra

All reviews are available on the website: www.theviewfromthestalls.org.uk

06/08/2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ One of Britain's favourite musicals performed by a large cast of talented locals

When it comes to musicals, there is one which the British have taken to their hearts over many decades. That musical is Rogers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music. Mess with that at your peril! Fortunately, it is in good hands when presented by Our Star Theatre Company as a Community Musical with many Our Star stalwarts among the 3 dozen or so cast members.

The first we see of the size of the cast comes from the impressive opening, consisting of a choir of nuns headed by Mother Abbess (Melanie Bailey, who proves that she can certainly belt out a tune and got applause for it!). The crucial part of Maria needs someone who can carry off the role of a young girl who both wants a life inside the abbey as well as outside and this is perfectly portrayed here by Felicity Williams, for whom some nuns have a soft spot whilst others feel she is more of a distraction (or a "problem"). That distraction, of course, finally gets her married to the father of the von Trapp family, Georg (Gareth Wigg, very much a pro in terms of musicals).

Based on the real-life von Trapp family (and adapted from a story written by Maria herself), the other important element is the children who are obligingly cute as well as a good singing ensemble with a couple of pieces performed solely by them including So long, Farewell, sung as they all head off to bed after one of their father's parties but more importantly sung at the music festival allowing their sneaky escape from the grasp of the N***s. It might seem strange mixing the visuals of the N**i Anschluss (effectively annexing Austria) with a sweet story about a young girl being "adopted" by a singing family of seven children whilst the relative security of the abbey is also under threat but this what happened in 1938.

Every good story has its baddies and here we have some of the Our Star regulars taking characters who stray somewhat from their initial goody goody personas - the very elegant and potential wife material for Georg, Elsa (Emily Chambers), Uncle Max the cultural impresario (George Chambers, happy as usual to play a bit of a fool) and Aqueal Blandford as the upright and efficient butler Franz.

The sets used are quite dramatic, raging from the inside of the abbey and the von Trapp family home (staircase essential!) as well as the mountains where the family make their escape. The title song needs a suitably vast mountain vista, achieved here by a beautifully-painted stage cloth background. For Our Star, the production included a number of firsts, the stage cloth being one of them. First time on the main Festival Theatre stage, first time using an actual band-pit hiding 9 talented musicians led by James Jarvis whilst at the same time retaining some regular aspects of their production - direction by Ben Mowbray (of course!), choreography by Destiny Dawe and an encouragement for aspiring actors in the wider community to be on stage for the very first time, whatever their age. Even when everything is going well, sometimes it is just the technology which goes rogue - in this case some of the microphones were not performing properly leading to the loss of amplified sound from the singers. With 2 dozen mics to control, hopefully the cause will be identified and easily fixed for future shows.

The perfect show for a warm summer's evening!

Other than the summer musical, Our Star also have to other shows coming up. A nationwide tour of The Three Musketeers and the annual panto at the Conquest Theatre in Bromyard which this year is Sleeping Beauty.

(All images from the rehearsals so no sets or costumes shown!)

Our Star Theatre Company

All reviews are available on the website: www.theviewfromthestalls.org.uk

02/08/2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Graham Greene’s classic murderous play performed by a young company

We need to go back nearly 100 years for the setting of Brighton Rock, Grahame Greene’s story of a murder and hatred centred on a 17 year old sociopathic gang leader, Pinkie Brown. The play, as adapted by Bryony Lavery, has 9 actors from Malvern Theatres Young Company who presented this short run, with most playing more than a single character. The age of the play allows for some appropriate musical accompaniment – a beautifully sung version of “As time goes by” (the jazz classic written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931 and made more famous when it was featured in the 1942 film Casablanca) starts the show and there is more music throughout.

Pinkie is the archetypal “bad lad” short on conscience but with a group of friends who look up to him, initially at least. He is on the hunt for journalist Charles Hale in revenge for an article which led to the death of his friend and mentor Kite. Hale is in town as his newspaper’s “mystery man” with a prize for anyone who successfully identifies him (yes, that really used to be a thing!). It is the unsuspecting Rose who finds one of his calling cards falsely placed by one of the gang’s members which leads Pinkie to deviously follow and suggest marriage to her, knowing that her devout Catholic faith means that she will be unable to ever testify against him. Ultimately Pinkie becomes that paranoid after killing another gang members that he proposes a su***de pact with Rose which doesn’t go as planned… As a final mark of disrespect, Pinkie had recorded a message full of hatred for Rose.

Under director Alec Fellows-Bennett, the team of 9 do a great job of bringing the story to a new audience and the action flows seamlessly from scene to scene, the only stage changes being the occasional placement of a table in the café. Other than that, it is a static set which serves many purposes including the pier and the cliff edge.

As it played to a full house in Studio One, it is clear that there is an audience more than willing to see young actors starting out in what could be a potentially successful acting career and this gives them an early chance to do that in front of a live audience, which they did admirably with no signs of nerves. In addition to Malvern, the shows will be presented at the Crescent Theatre in Birmingham’s Brindley Place on 4th and 5th August.

There are further shows coming up featuring young companies: Malvern Theatres Young Company will be back with something completely different from 18th to 22nd August - Ben Elton’s We Will Rock You. And before then, Our Star Theatre Company will be presenting another classic, The Sound Of Music from 5th to 8th August. Both shows will be on the main Festival Theatre stage.

Malvern Theatres Young Company
Our Star Theatre Company

All reviews are available on the website: www.theviewfromthestalls.org.uk

29/07/2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐ An update of the characters in the original TV series…

This might come as a bit of a shock but it is exactly 50 years since Antony Jay (with a successful background in ”That was the week that was” and “The Frost Report”) suggested to Jonathan Lynn (who had already written for comedy series like “On the buses” and various Doctor comedy series for LWT) that they sit down and write a show about possibly the driest of all possible source material, the British Civil Service. It was, however, a moment of genius as hidden from public view in the Civil Service are characters ripe for mockery and which turned into not one but two of the eras defining comedies – Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister.

Fifty years on and it is definitely time, therefore, for an update of Sir Humphrey and Jim Hacker, played here by Clive Francis and Robert Kitson. The third member of that original team, principal private secretary Bernard Woolley, is mentioned but does not appear. Things have moved on and Hacker, living in college rooms after a large donation from a Russian oligarch is in need of a carer – sorry, care worker - Sophie who turns out to tick all available woke boxes of being a woman, black and a le***an. She is played by Princess Donnough. Sir Humphrey, meanwhile, is living in a care home and both are living not just on borrowed time but borrowed money too, with Hacker about to be ousted from his comfortable life and Sir Humphrey having given all his money to his children. The two of them were colleagues but never friends and are now older (with a walking stick and a chair lift) but not necessarily wiser, barely understanding modern ways of doing things.

Anyone who remembers the original (probably most of the audience, to be fair) will remember well that it is Sir Humphrey (Nigel Hawthorne in the original) who got the very best lines with his attempts to demolish any argument put forward by a usually confused Hacker (Paul Eddington) with convoluted and extended speeches which were as hilarious to hear as they must have been hard to memorise. And the same goes here with a number of these cropping up in the script and garnering applause from the audience (and no retakes – this is theatre!).

The show is most definitely not the original just restaged, something which a lot of people appear to have been expecting, with an intense dislike of the supposed “wokeness” of it. They seem to forget that this is the world which we now live in and the show reflects that, it does not promote it. Indeed it is itself making fun of that very thing. What we are witnessing is 2 characters from nearly 50 years ago and how they survive the modern world.

The original show is, however, not forgotten. At the end, the familiar theme tune is played along with a large portrait of the three original actors in the series, which is a nice touch as all three actors are no longer with us.

If you want a reproduction of a comedy of civil service life of decades ago, this is not for you. It is not a show based in the 1980s.

If you want to see how those characters from the 80s are today, no longer anything to do with government but now living their rather charmed civilian lives, then this is great fun.

All reviews are available on the website: www.theviewfromthestalls.org.uk

23/07/2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Musicals don’t get any better than this – a real belter of a show!

The Public House or pub. The most British of icons, especially for men. A place to meet, drink, chat, play games and connect - the very centre of society or, simply, home.

This is the setting chosen by the creators of The Choir of Man, Nic Doodson and Andrew Kay. They chose to have its very first try-out in a small venue in London before taking it to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 and then, well, the world. The rest, as they say, is history and a lesson in how take the simplest of ideas and turn it into something spectacular whilst retaining a serious message.

There is no story as such, something writer Ben Norris is happy to admit. It is just 9 men of varying backgrounds, songs and beer (or a J2O – no-one’s judging!), plus nothing fancier than a packet of crisps to share. This place of companionship is a pub called The Jungle and is somewhere special, open to all, literally. Even before the show starts, the audience can go onto the stage, chat and drink with the cast. That is definitely a foretaste of things to come and in the immortal words of Bachman-Turner Overdrive – “you ain’t seen nothing yet”! Oddly enough, that song doesn’t feature in the show though plenty do in what could be considered the ultimate pub jukebox musical.

The cast play 9 different characters, carefully chosen to reflect a typical range of drinking buddies all referred to by their nicknames. The pub’s barman (Joshua Lloyd) is accompanied by others with appropriate nicknames – Beast (Rob Godfrey), Joker (Ben Mabberley), Maestro (Gustav Melbardis), Bore (Aaron Pottenger), Hard Man (Levi Tyrell Johnson), Romantic (Sam Walter), Handyman (Jack Skelton) and the guy who effectively narrates the stories behind these characters, Poet (Oluwalonimi Owoyemi (or Nimi for short). These are characters which cover the social spectrum but also come from different origins and nations, all brought together in a celebration of fellowship amidst an understanding that men, for whatever reason, struggle to express their true feelings, sometimes with disastrous results. Without pushing the point too much, the fact that the show’s Partner Charity is CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) speaks volumes on behalf of the 125 people who take their own lives each week. The characters may just be referred to by their nicknames but the script cleverly allows Nimi the Poet, to introduce us to the actual actors themselves and where they have come from and a bit about their own background – two from Wales (Llantwit Major and Cardiff), Hinkley (home of the very British motorcycle), Sheffield, New York and Nimi himself, a proud Mancunian born in Nigeria.

The songs, with some very impressive choreography, cover a wide range of styles, including obvious crowd pleasers such as “Somebody to love”, “The Voice”, “Escape - The Piña Colada Song”, a funny rendition of “500 Miles” and a quite brilliant version of “50 Ways to leave your Lover” done to a tap dance(!) as well as a host of other singalong tunes with the actors also serving as musicians for the evening.

Although set in the pub’s bar area, there is one part of the pub which unexpectedly appears on stage – the men’s urinals. This gives rise to a truly hilarious section of men doing what men do and leading to a bit of a clean up when they leave…

The interval again serves as a chance to get back onto the stage for a drink or two before the show seamlessly restarts with the cast and audience together on stage for the first number. Once the audience are back in their seats, that is not the end of their involvement as, in both parts, various audience members are asked to go onto the stage to “assist” members of the cast (especially funny was Beast and his unwitting audience member). And even if you remain in your seats, you may still be treated to pints delivered to you by the cast or maybe a packet of crisps or a beer mat thrown from the stage.

If you get along to the first performance of the week, the chances are that there will also be the involvement of local choirs, singing their hearts out from the auditorium for the final song. If the pub is a community hub, this one element showed the true power of community, bringing together so many disparate people in a single song. And kudos to the BSL interpreter who had the not-insignificant job of keeping up with both the words and the songs throughout the show.

This is clearly a very British musical set in a very British location performed by a team of talented multi-skilled performers who are obviously enjoying themselves immensely and who thrive on the interaction and games they play with the audience (who even get to try to throw a ping pong ball and have it land in a beer mug for a reward!). Truly a show worth seeing twice, if not more.

If it all had to be described in a single word, that word would be “Wow”

The Choir Of Man

All reviews are available on the website: www.theviewfromthestalls.org.uk

18/07/2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ An outdoor performance of Jane Austen’s classic which is perfect for a summer’s evening

One of the best things about having a local repertory company and a venue like The Commandery is that each year, the two get together to present a well-known play in the glorious outdoors. Okay, the weather means that the outdoors is sometimes not so glorious but so far this year, audiences have been lucky to have fine evenings to enjoy the Worcester Repertory Company’s presentation of Northanger Abbey.

Anyone lucky enough to have seen their previous plays will know that these are shows done with a certain informal style, stripped back to the original’s essential elements to allow them to be performed by a small cast, in this case, just 5 actors. The plays are generally adapted in such a way as to reference local places and to have the passive involvement of the audience. The cast may be small in numbers but as they each have multiple roles to play, they have some quick costumes changes to make. In their main characters, there is Charlie Fraser-Swarbrick as Catherine, the young innocent who is hoping to find love away from her home in Pershore(!), Alexandra Whitworth is Isabella who is the daughter of friends of the Allens (who are friends of Catherine’s family), Julia Bentley is the aforementioned Mrs Allen, Nate Harter is Catherine’s suitor Henry and George Ormerod is James, the suitor of Isabella. Against all the these, you can add “& others, as the cast move seamlessly from one character to another, most hilariously in the case of Nate Harter who also plays Catherine’s other suitor John). Henry like reading books which makes him instantly more attractive a proposition to Catherine than John, who abhors them.

The set is quite a simple one, leaving much to the imagination – just a backdrop of books (alluding to the fact that this is UK National Year of Reading and a few chairs which serve various purposes such as seating for a carriage ride across the counties where, apparently, Worcestershire has few potholes compared with Gloucestershire and where the council will surely be filling in any that exist… It is these little asides and contemporary references that turn what is a respected book into something much more relevant to the local audience. And there are plenty of them as the characters regularly talk directly to the audience.

As in many of these types of novels, the plot inevitably revolves around finding love, marriage and money across the social divide, which in this case includes Gothic elements of creepy goings-on, potential abduction and murder though fortunately these are unfounded and, as far as Catherine is concerned, she finally gets the deal she wanted. This production successfully distils the essential parts of the story down to less than 2 hours, localises many of them, adds a few songs and, on a warm summer’s evening, provides the perfect entertainment.

Worcester Theatres

All reviews are available on the website: www.theviewfromthestalls.org.uk

17/07/2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A show as personal to the writer as Rent, this stage version brings to life the trials and tribulations of a budding songwriter’s life in NYC in the 90s

Tick Tick... Boom! Is the strangely yet very aptly named musical by Jonathan Larson, the talented young writer who, in his other work Rent, managed to create a beautifully emotive love song based on the number of minutes in a year - "525600 minutes Seasons of Love".

In this show, a Theatre S.S.L. production, the "Tick Tick…" refers to the inevitable and unstoppable passing of time and the "Boom" is his upcoming 30th birthday in 1990. The semi-autobiographical play revolves around his attempts to get a musical called Superbia (based on Orwell’s 1984) picked up by a producer when life and particularly relationships and the 1990s HIV/Aids crisis get in the way, all of which give him the impression that he is not achieving anything in his life when his friends seem to have already settled down. All apparently true to life so it is not surprising that the lead character is called Jon.

The show was originally written as a “rock monologue for the MTV generation” and was then revamped to include three main characters. Nonetheless, it still requires Jon to be in every scene throughout the show. Luckily, that part is in good hands here with Matt Bridgewater back on stage after playing the Trekkie Monster in last year’s rather naughty Avenue Q and Bernardo in West Side Story. His role is to narrate his life through words and song with the spotlight often alternating between him, when talking directly to the audience, and the other cast members.

An equally strong voice is needed for the other male character who is his long-standing (and gay) best friend Michael, played here by Scott Cartwright who again was in Avenue Q as the closeted gay Republican Rod. They are well matched in terms of vocal skills and have quite a few songs which they perform beautifully together.

The third of the trio is Jon’s girlfriend Susan (Sophie Hill). With a number of duets with Jon, including one amusing one where the two are dancing around each other on office chairs, her voice is equal to any of the male ones.

The rest of the cast is made up of Emma Shaw, Reece Clews, Chloe Amos and Jacob Finch (who also produced the show with Hannah Finch directing it). The musical director for the show is Ed Malpass and although the music was pre-recorded, it was all timed perfectly, even down to the piano solos which allowed Matt Bridgewater to show off his softer side. And for the very final “extra” song, there was no music at all – it was the audience who provided the rhythmic clapping to an acapella version of Boho Days which was the original title of the show.

This and Rent were clearly very personal shows for Larson and the songs’ lyrics reflect this. It is therefore a tragic irony that Larson died from an undiagnosed medical condition the night before Rent was due to be have its off-Broadway premiere. He was just 35 years old. In the film version of Tick Tick… Boom!, his agent Rosa’s advice when Superbia failed to get any concrete interest after the workshops was "Write a show. Then write another one. Then write another. That's the life of a writer", one can only speculate what shows we will never get to see because of his untimely passing, particularly as he was mentored and supported by none other than Stephen Sondheim.

With only three performances (Friday night plus 2 on Saturday), this is quite an achievement!

Next year's show at The Greig Hall will be The Lightning Thief
Theatre SSL
https://greighall.org.uk

Photos courtesy of AsseenbySophie

All reviews are available on the website: www.theviewfromthestalls.org.uk

15/07/2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ For any lover of pubs, this would be the ultimate lock-in! An amazingly vibrant and enjoyable musical experience.

The Choir of Man takes place inside that very thing which epitomises Britishness – the pub. Somewhere which, by all accounts, is threatened in spite of its importance to society as a whole and especially to the men who frequent them for companionship. This pub, however, is The Jungle and is somewhere special – no fancy burgers on brioche buns here, just pork scratchings, if you’re lucky. Open to all, literally. Even before the show starts, the audience can go onto the stage, chat and drink with the cast. That is definitely a foretaste of things to come and in the immortal words of Bachman-Turner Overdrive – “you ain’t seen nothing yet”! Oddly enough, that song doesn’t feature in the show though plenty do in what could be considered the ultimate pub jukebox musical.

The cast play 9 different characters, carefully chosen to reflect a typical range of drinking buddies. The pub’s barman (Joshua Lloyd) is accompanied by others with appropriate nicknames – Beast (Rob Godfrey), Joker (Ben Mabberley), Maestro (Gustav Melbardis), Bore (Aaron Pottenger), Hard Man (Levi Tyrell Johnson), Romantic (Sam Walter), Handyman (Niall Woodson) and the guy who effectively narrates the stories behind these characters, Poet (Oluwalonimi Owoyemi. These are characters which cover the social spectrum but also from different origins and nationalities, all brought together by the pub or, as they like to see it, “home”. And through Poet, we get to hear something of their own personal backgrounds too.

The songs, with some impressive choreography, cover a wide range of styles, including obvious crowd pleasers such as “Somebody to love” (especially for Romantic), “The Voice”, “Escape - The Piña Colada Song”, a funny rendition of “500 Miles” and a quite brilliant version of “50 Ways to leave your Lover” done to a tap dance(!) as well as a host of other singalong tunes with the actors also serving as musicians for the evening.

Although set in the pub’s bar area, there is one part of the pub which unexpectedly appears on stage – the men’s urinals. This gives rise to a hilarious section of men doing what men do and leading to a bit of a clean up when they leave…

The interval again serves as a chance to get back onto the stage for a drink or two before the show seamlessly restarts with the cast and audience together (as shown in the video clip). Once the audience are back in their seats, that is not the end of their involvement as, in both parts, various audience members are asked to go onto the stage to “perform” with members of the cast (especially funny was Beast and his unwitting and very compliant audience member). And even if you remain in your seats, you may still be treated to pints delivered to you by the cast or maybe a packet of crisps thrown from the stage.

Whilst Sia’s Chandelier brought Act One to a close, the show manages to spring a final surprise when the song is used to bring together the cast of 9 with 200 members of local got2sing choirs who been patiently waiting for their moment to shine from the stalls in a performance, which had not been rehearsed with the cast in advance. If the pub is a community hub, this one element showed the true power of community, bring together so many disparate people in a single song.

This is a show with small roots (created by Nic Doodson and Andrew Kay and starting life in the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017) which has grown to be a huge international success in less that a decade and justifiably so. A very British musical set in a very British location performed by a team of talented multi-skilled performers who are obviously enjoying themselves immensely, all combined with extensive audience participation. What’s not to love?

The Alexandra
The Choir Of Man

Note: ATG Entertainment require the following statement. This review is an advertisement and has been incentivised by the provision of tickets.

All reviews are available on the website: www.theviewfromthestalls.org.uk

The View From The Stalls

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