This show was to go on in August. I turned up to the dress rehearsal, notepad in hand to review it, just half an hour after New Zealand's second Covid-19 lockdown was declared.
The cast and crew were distraught, there were tears, the show was off.
It had been planned to have this without a stage — in the small auditorium at the CHB Municipal Theatre, the singers moving between tables of diners, intimate, up close and personal. Rebuilt, the whole show has gone Covid regulation friendly, moving onto the theatre's main stage, bringing the tables into a bigger space for audience safety, rearranging the choreography, re-rehearsing ...
And it is a triumph.
Cheating a bit, really ... what better way to get the most talent into one evening than picking the big numbers from the best shows and lining them up, one after the other, a barrage of brilliance, in one big show?
Even the orchestra get on stage in this production, which is an extra treat, as normally we only get to see the tip of the violinist's bow, poking up from the orcheatra pit. Seeing the musicians as well as hearing them adds an extra element of intimacy.
The revue reprises M&D shows from the past, and adds some from the latest West End productions. Les Mis, Chicago, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Phantom, Godspell, Grease, Mamma Mia!, Wicked ... you get the idea. Now get the tickets, because if you miss out you will have to sit and listen to everyone else talking about it.
Honestly.
Where else will you hear six sopranos — good sopranos — at once, hear an ensemble of big, beautiful voices belt out your absolute favourites, talents from the young and fresh faced to Waipawa M&D's life members with voices filled with character and emotion?
Voice after voice blew us away, me and my junior reviewer, grandson Jhasper, 10. My face hurt from grinning and Jhasper couldn't sit still. He sang along, he tapped and he whispered "this is so cool. I love this. I need to do this too ... I like the man in the blue coat, no, now I like the one in the black shirt... ... Nannie, I love them all!"
This isn't a children's show, but there were children — I suspect they belonged to cast members — in the audience and during the last number a tiny girl toddled forward, tentatively, reaching out to the stage as if to try to touch the music. She was followed by other small children whose bodies could no longer resist the urge to dance. When the last curtain came down my mini reviewer looked to me, aghast. "Aww — is it finished?"
For him yes, but I get to go again as I have tickets for this weekend and I am looking forward to it.
West End to Waipawa
CHB Municipal Theatre - Kenilworth St Waipawa
Thursday November 11 - Saturday November 20
Tickets: Eventfinda
waipawamusicalanddramatic.com
