Directors: Tom Morris, Ruth Southwick & Heather Hepple. Musical Director: Enid Jones
To celebrate the society's 30th anniversary, this concert was a collection of songs from the shows performed by the group over the past three decades. Peppered between the songs were facts and reminiscences about the history of the group. Delivered mainly conversationally, these interjections proved both interesting and informative.
The two sections that stood out were selected numbers from "The Sound of Music" and "South Pacific". Elsewhere in the running order there were some unusual choices of song and perhaps a few more "toe-tappers" could have been included. The more up-beat songs tended to be buched together, leaving long spells of ballds and slow songs. This made for an uneven evening although it has to be said that the performances were all extremely good. When the chorus moved it proved very effective and fitting, and the final half dozen songs or so allowed the whole society more of a chance to shine. The harmonies in songs such as those from "Die Fledermaus" were excellent. Following taking the lead in the socity's first musical, "The Desert Song", Margaret Keen returned to sing "Romance" which proved to be a touching and poignant contribution.
At the end of the show, the group performed "The Trolley Song" from their next show "Meet Me in St. Louis" - on the strength of this, I look forward to November already!