Found – Pelican Productions

“Found”  by Pelican Productions is the performance culmination of their MTC (Music Theatre Camp) held for 2 weeks in the January School holidays for performers 8-19 years. “Found”, in The Michael Murray Centre Westminster School, features songs under the Hollywood banner from, Come From Away, Mary Poppins, Six, Bugsy, Aladdin, Beetlejuice, Les Miserables, Moulin Rouge and finally Dear Evan Hansen.

The young performers are trained in the three major aspects of music theatre-acting, singing and dancing, with the opening numbers from Come From Away providing a highly energetic, up tempo start to the evening’s program, with vocal chorus work which we would come to recognise throughout the entire show. The audience needed to “tune their ears” to accommodate the American accents in most of the songs throughout.

It is not possible to relate every segment in such a wide-ranging show but here is a glance at some of the gems.
The following segment was music from Mary Poppins with Ariel Higgs singing the title role. Her sweet, true voice was accompanied by excellent clear diction. Her work in “Supercalifragilistic” along with the Company was a delight.
In Six, the powerful voice of Henny Walters as Jane Seymour demonstrated an enormous range which was pretty impressive.
Walter Buckley provided an extended and comically clever Beetlejuice, but it was considered that the opening number in the “Les Miserables” segment was a tad quick for the lyrics to be heard clearly. Amelia Trott played little Cosette with compassion and Harrison Thomas gave an enjoyable performance as street-hardened Gavroche, whilst the  Company were right on top of their game in “Do You Hear The People Sing.”Erin Sowerby’s lead vocals in Moulin Rouge were superb.
The choreography in all numbers was performed with an enormous sense of vitality and enthusiasm taught and trained by a team of imaginative dance teachers with many years of professional skills and knowledge under their belts.

Jen Frith and Kylie Green have produced once again a show with the highest standards in music theatre, but mention should be made of the costumes. One has only to glance at “The Costume Team” in the program to learn of the excellence of the costume presentation on stage made by 31 costume makers. The audience, comprising essentially mum and dad, brother and sister, grandpa and grandma were eager to see the wonderful, immaculately created costumes, precisely appropriate to each musical segment and they were not the least disappointed.

Set changes were carried out seamlessly as one segment slid effortlessly into the next.

“Found” is a show which showcased the “hard yards” of which every member of the Company can be justly proud.