This production had dual casts in a number of roles. In the interest of fairness to all, we reviewed both casts. Alan Shepley reviewed the Sparkle Cast and Jacqui Wall reviewed the Bright Cast.

Sparkle Cast

The NOW production team’s ” Light up the Stage” is a delightfully manufactured and well balanced trip down musical theatre lane. A veritable guild of young stage directors (and assistant directors) has harnessed the talents of a large ensemble of junior actors, singers and dancers in order to visit and showcase excerpts from five beloved musicals. In this journey the directorial team is ably assisted by a trio of musical directors together with a quartet of choreographers. Together they make up an impressive number of fifteen young people all taking leadership roles in the presentation of performances by a cast of forty-five, if my arithmetic is correct! It’s a great concept by the NOW people.

I saw the “Sparkle” cast on opening night and first cab off the rank was several excerpts from “Annie”. With a smaller cast than the latter pieces this presentation looked really good on stage and set the standard for the rest of the evening. As Annie, Abigail Carr’s rendition of “Tomorrow” was spot on. She really nailed it; and her fellow cast members certainly didn’t let anything stop them with their rousing version of “Hard Knock Life”.

Belle (Annabelle Coulson), Gaston (Jasper Dutch) and Lefou (Arabella Rimmer) were the winning combo in several numbers from “Beauty and the Beast”. And Coulson gave of her all in her delivery of “Home”. This overall presentation was colourful and very busy with a lot going on within the large supporting chorus spread across the stage. In both song and energetic movement everybody looked looked like they were having a great time!

Estelle Robinson’s rendition of “Where is Love” really jangled the heart strings to open the segment featuring the musical “Oliver”. Jacob Bell’s Artful Dodger was well considered, well rehearsed and nicely timed on stage. And Kane Barry managed to pick-a-pocket or two as the unscrupulous Fagin. The ensemble work was excellent and especially so in that great show stopper “Consider Yourself”. Great movement, driving energy, excellent outcome!

Flynn Hawkey was a convincing and believable Caractacus in the ” Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang!” segment with Kasidey Ryan as a fetching Truly Scrumptious. I thought that the duet within Truly’s song delivered by Jeremy (Jabari Squire) and Jemima (Abigail Carr) was very well voiced by those two young performers.

“School of Rock” was the obvious choice to end the programme on notes both high and loud! Joel Ewens made the absolute most of his lead role as Dewey. But all of his music class students rose to the occasion when required and their collective attack on the driving number “Stick it to the Man” was exactly what the teacher ordered! It was insistent, infectious and greatly appreciated by an audience ready for anything!

I do hope that the young directors all will consider this effort to be a part of their learning curve and they will put their hands up many more times into the future. Ditto to those of you involved in singing coaching, chorus movement and the all important back stage stuff. NOW demonstrates just how much talent there is just littering our suburbs and it is so refreshing to see young people involved in a collective artistic enterprise without so much as a single phone in hand. By the by, the “Heathers” trailer delivered by the “Heathers” cast as an opening act to this show bodes very well for NOW’s next production.

Bright Cast

Annie

Estelle Robinson was a wonderful Annie with a truly pleasant, sweet voice and wonderful stage presence. She used the stage to full advantage.

The ensemble work was tight and extremely well rehearsed.

Beauty & The Beast

Belle was performed by Ava Heintze in the Bright cast and showed a maturity well beyond her young age.

Tayla Meldrum was Lefou and was a perfectly simpering foil for the bold and brash Gaston.

The Bright cast overall were extremely well polished in their performances.

Oliver

Lucy Harry who performed the role of Oliver was exceptional with just the right amount of wide-eyed innocence.

Jasper Dutch popped up in various roles throughout the show but I feel the role of Fagin was his best performance and suited his vocal range perfectly.

Edison Dutch was The Artful Dodger and had just the right sass to carry it off in his rendition of Consider Yourself.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Truly Scrumptious was portrayed by Liana Porter in this performance and it was fascinating to watch her footwork throughout the Choreography with alternating points whilst at the same time the rotating arm movements. It was almost like asking someone to pat their head and rub their stomach at the same time. Well done.

School of Rock

Ensemble work was excellent and timing impeccable. Choreography was energetic and extremely well executed by all.