Another lively touring entertainment from the Simon Gross stable has provided ideal small-scale entertainment for dozens of retirement homes and hospital wards throughout the summer.
Damian Robinson and Ellen Waghorn in 'In The Mood' at Brinsworth House, Twickenham
Damian Robinson and Ellen Waghorn in 'In The Mood' at Brinsworth House, Twickenham
The familiar format is a tightly choreographed, 60 minute programme set to a pre-recorded backing track - in this case a titular tribute to the Glenn Miller orchestra’s songbook but also embracing melodic hits of other forties stars.
Mountview graduate, contralto Ellen Waghorn, with the power, range and sweet musicality of an Ethel Merman, gets to wear a dazzling array of costumes including an enchanting operetta gown and flowery Easter bonnet for her Judy Garland set.
Stage partner Damian Robinson, trained at Arts Ed, plays interlocutor as a musical stand-up, keeping the audience amused between her back-stage changes, but a repetitive script gives him few chances to win laughs.
He really comes into his own as a Welsh clown in a high-speed comic version of Sister Susie, a poignant black tie rendition of Berkeley Square and his spot on George Formby routine that had the Brinsworth oldsters joining in.
Waghorn is not just a great chanteuse but a natural comedian with a fine ear for accents and attitudes from Andrews Sisters and Broadway Babes to Vera Lynn. For me her Sentimental Journey topped the Glenn Miller sequence, while the pair also shared expressive duets with In the Mood and The A Train. But their verve and vivacity in a sequence of Harry Warren numbers for 42nd Street brought the magic of Broadway to an audience of resting stars of yesteryear.
The Roaring Twenties
The Stage - May 2008
By John Thaxter
I caught this spirited musical entertainment shortly before the end of its nine-week tour to literally dozens of homes and hospital wards.
The young performers, faced with a day of triple bookings, were still giving delightfully fresh song and dance performances in costume and character, here to a knowledgeable audience of retired variety artists at Brinsworth House, who offered murmurs of delight, enthusiastic applause and readiness to join in.
The Simon Gross format has become familiar - a tightly choreographed, 60-minute programme set to a pre-recorded backing track which, while unobtrusive, imposes a rhythmic discipline on its young performers.
With a trunkful of props and split-second timing, lyric soprano Aimi Kuhlke (a pitch perfect voice of cabaret quality) and her mezzo colleague Catherine McDonald (who supplies most of the musical comedy), ranged through more than 30 great songs of the roaring twenties and succeeding years in solos and duets that honoured both verse and refrain.
The repetitive Charleston opening routine in blonde wigs, does these attractive performers no favours. But moments later, one got the true measure of their performing skills - Catherine as the Second Hand Rose, while Aimi kept Young and Beautiful in an eye-catching yellow outfit, both demonstrating acting as well as musical skills.
Space precludes a run-down of the many numbers that followed, except to say that even within the constraints set by the recorded backing, this totally professional pair demonstrated their ability to bring vibrant, individual interpretations to the lyric line. Both deserve to succeed in the world of musical theatre.
Dick Whittington
The Stage - January 2008
By John Thaxter
This traditional pantomime, a three-hander brilliantly scripted by producer-director Simon Gross, is a refreshing antidote to those overblown pantos packed with television faces.
His touring show, the real thing in miniature, brings Christmas entertainment to nursing homes and day centres, here visiting the famous children's hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital) where its trio of performers soon turned a gathering of young patients, parents and nursing staff, into a lively and responsive audience.
Their resources are modest, no scenery, just a trunk full of costumes, plus a backing track of pre-recorded show tunes. But the scenes are set by the actors so convincingly I could have sworn I saw the ship's deck tilting in the storm.
It would be hard to over-praise the three young women who make this possible. Liz Brown as Dick is the first true principal boy I have seen for years, with perfect legs to match and a winning way with a song.
Slender Carly Spicer plays both the Good Fairy and Alice Fitzwarren. But she also brings complete conviction to her Tommy the Cat in a black body-suit and the Sultana of Morocco with a smoochy exotic dance.
As with big-scale shows the star is the Dame, played with terrific panto repartee by versatile Claudette Spreadbury, who also doubles as Queen Rat, and whose veteran performance belies her youth.
Lights! Camera! Action!
The Stage - October 2007
By John Thaxter
As a busy theatre entrepreneur, Simon Gross has several companies on the road at any one time, taking his musical revues and pantos to nursing homes and day centres.
But a coveted date for his young performers is a Brinsworth House matinee, the Twickenham retirement haven for variety artists who know all the words and music and recognise talent when they see it.
Three duos are touring the current show, a tuneful tribute to movie musicals featuring 30 songs and dozens of costume changes in a slick hour of entertainment, none with more audience appeal than the stage partnership of Graham Weaver and Kirsty Kober.
He, always spot on the note, is limber as Fred Astaire, a lean and sonorous scarecrow or that lonely goatherd with a superb yodel, while sweet-voiced Kirsty is a sassy Judy Garland, an infectiously joyful Julie Andrews and thoroughly modern as Millie in the Charleston.
While the pre-recorded backing track is unobtrusive it paces the programme, imposing a discipline these young players maintain with professional precision. But as well as the pizzazz, they had a special word for each and every one of their senior audience, none more charmed than Emily Perry, remembered as Dame Edna's bridesmaid ‘Madge Allsop', now a Brinsworth centenarian.
If I had to choose favourites, it would be hard to beat their Fred and Ginger, dancing cheek to cheek with an impressive flourish, a superb Edelweiss duet, and her cockney flower-seller cherishing all that's “lover-ly” in a style recalling Martine McCutcheon's stage Eliza.
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Summertime Special
Newsshopper Review - August 2007
Resident artists
By Kerry Ann Eustice
SG Productions' Jean Warner
performs as Marlene Dietrich |
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BRINGING entertainment to those who can no longer seek it out for themselves is all in a day's work for SG Productions. Formed by Beckenham-based performer Simon Gross - who you may remember from ITV's Hell's Kitchen, Channel 4's What The Butler Saw and countless stage shows - SG Productions is a performance troupe, who take lively shows into the community.
Putting on variety shows in nursing homes and day centres is a big part of SG's work, an idea which came to Simon when he was a carer.
The troupe's most recent show was at Glebe Court, a nursing home on Glebe Way, West Wickham.
The resident's excitement and anticipation was clear from the outset. A gentleman named Graham could barely wait for the music to strike up before he started dancing.
Tailored to evoke fond memories of the 40s, trips to the seaside and the wartime spirit, the shows are laced with humour, fabulously-bright costumes and hits from the musicals. It was moving to see the effect Summertime Special had on Glebe Court.
Residents beamed while singing along to uplifting numbers such as Cliff's Summer Holiday, Annie's signature tune Tomorrow and I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside.
Joanna Brick, the activities co- ordinator at the home, says even the residents who have lost their speech manage to sing along.
Although many of SG's performers also take on stage work - Jean Warner, who shone at Glebe, has a West End job lined up for Christmas - it's clear they find community gigs just as rewarding.
Simon said: "It can be very moving. It's hard work but it's worth it." |
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