On Wednesday 28 June, the Year 3 and 4 boys starred in an Old Time, New Time Music Hall Production which was wittily chaired by MCs Maxim Demin and Mr Cavendish.
The show opened with a toe-tapping dance routine (complete with flashing trilbies and ties!) and was quickly followed by a silent-movie-era Charlie Chaplin scene. Shiven Shankar’s Charlie Chaplin was well-accompanied by Joseph Lucas’s pretty lady and Bertie Pullen’s jealous fiancé and the audience rolled with laughter as the jealous fiancé sought to gain revenge for Chaplin’s indiscretions.
Year 3 then performed some engaging poetry including The Naming of Cats and Magical Mr Mistofolees. It is always remarkable how well the boys learn their lines for school productions and this was no exception – the whole of Year 3 performed their roles with enthusiasm and it was wonderful to see them carry out the actions with such excellent timing.
Later on in the production Mrs Crane – our esteemed director – had had enough and decided to work in a girls’ school, resulting in some very put-out boys (with excellent acting on their behalf!) singing solos from Annie and other musicals before performing a hilarious dance with parasols and the full princess regalia. The boys’ comic timing – and their ability to completely get stuck into the roles – is to be commended.
We then enjoyed listening to Joshua Found’s rousing solo of Johnny Be Good before a veritable sea of Elvises danced along to his rendition of Return to Sender. Joshua’s performance was a real stand-out moment in the show as he absolutely shone.
Next it was time for a Monty Python-esque argument sketch which delivered some cracking laughs before we headed into the grand finale – Destiny was performed by all of the cast and managed to bring a tear to the eye of many a parent in the audience.
Many thanks to Mrs Crane for her tireless hard work on this production as well as to all of the staff who contributed their time and expertise to this project. And finally, well done to the boys who worked so hard to learn their lines, develop their performances and deliver some delightful comedic moments!
