Standing ovation for Newbury Nomads Cabaret Night
NOMADS recent Cabaret Night at St Nicolas Church Hall, Newbury, reviewed by JEANETTE MASKELL
FOLLOWING last year’s successful cabaret evening Nomads once again opted for the same format, which worked exceedingly well, giving an abundance of varied musical numbers.
Hannah Maskell, assisted by Mandy Maskell, was responsible for putting the programme together to give the audience an entertaining evening.
Compère for the evening was the energetic, captivating Zelda Stone, who kept the audience entertained with snippets of information about the songs.
It was delightful to see so many new members interspersed with familiar faces – and so many men.
It was lovely to hear old classics Friendship (Anything Goes) sung by Hannan Maskell and Carol Joice, Anything You Can Do (Annie Get Your Gun) Karen Fakes and Hazel Inman, Ol’ Man River (Showboat) Victor Santos and Stars (Les Misérables) Joseph Knight, which is my all-time favourite number from any musical.
There were some not so well-known older tunes Morning Glow (Pippen) Shaun Blake, Stars and the Moon (Songs for a New World) Alice Warbis-Keeping and Go Now (Return to the Forbidden Planet) Colette Jones.
There was a plethora of tunes from modern musicals: Still Hurting (The Last Five Years) Alison Hoult, Somewhere in the Dough (The Great British Bakeoff the Musical) I mean who knew? Freya Wilson, Six (Six the Musical) Alison Hoult, Carol Joice, Anna Neary, Jane Oliver, Nikki Rands, Susanna Sales, which was a very fitting end to the first half.
Zelda Stone gave us Land of Lola (Kinky Boots), The Power of Love (Back to the Future) Anthony Whitaker, Sincerely Me (Dear Evan Hansen) Matt Collins and Scott Taylor, Goodbye (Catch me if you Can) Andy Pocock and a mash up of Dear Evan Hansen/Hamilton from Susanna Sales Found/Tonight.
The entire cast finished the evening with an excellent arrangement of One Day More from Les Misérables. The vocals, harmonies and dynamics were outstanding, culminating in a stirring, and compellingly powerful rendition that fully deserved the standing ovation it received.
Nomads now move on to their autumn production The Addams Family, which takes place at the Corn Exchange from October 2 to 5.
