There’s a collage of sketch, dance and song “from the shows” on offer in Modern Time Music Hall, Kennet Amateur Theatrical Society’s latest production.
With a thoroughly up-to-date collation, Director Janet Kilgallon-Brook and Producer Jenny Woolf lead a cast whose versatility brings Um Pah Pah from Oliver alongside, and without turning a hair, We Will Rock You from Queen. Lots of group numbers are interspersed with solo numbers, gentle duets and even a solo dance, a passionate expression of Lifeboat from the musical The Heathers. And it’s utterly modern with its interpretation of I’m a Lumberjack – a progressively LBGQT+ identifying forester.
Adapted from a script sketch by Armstrong and Miller (of, you guessed it, The Armstrong & Miller Show), the returning sketch of ultra-woke-media-apologies by three oh-so-lovely media “personalities” takes a moment to tune into. And then you get it. The gushing, confessional, ever so sorry apologies for self-evidently dreadful sins – self-evident to everyone except the media perpetrator, while preening their fake contrition – that we’ve all heard over the years from Blue Peter to This Morning. Excruciating… before the inevitable release of the next, happy item they’ve moved onto without so much as a backward glance.
Held together by compere Mike Cole, the production is good fun, fast paced and got all the classic set pieces – stockings and suspenders, nuns, and pirates (whose ambitions aren’t SPOILER ALERT, finding treasure, gold or gutting galleon sailors, but to have a training day). Not universally slick but always full of wit and energy, even on the hottest night of the year when I watched a dress rehearsal, there was much to like, laugh at and enjoy in this happy production.
Three performances on Thursday 14th, Friday 15th and Saturday 16th September at Bucklebury Memorial Hall. Tickets are £11. Worth a go!
