Back to Broadway

As I come to the end of my Toussaints holiday (which I don't feel like I really deserved - we have only been working for two weeks!) it is time to do a bit of catching up. I had a fanatastic séjour in Manchester during the holidays - staying with Celyn, seeing friends, catching up, going to the Warehouse Project (yass), going through to York, and, of course, watching Back to Broadway. Although a little more information will follow shortly as to my various exploits during the past week and a half, I thought I would put up my review of the Back to Broadway show. It is a bit of a clandestine commission, as it is for the University of Manchester student newspaper Student Direct, of which I used to be an (active) member but, as a former student, I should not really be contributing. But it is a favour for a friend, and was great for me to try and fit all those gushing superlatives into 500 or less  words. I am so out of practice that I found it near impossible to create a coherent, objective and succint (bane of my life) review. Here is my attempt...

MUMS Promotional Poster .. (Dave?)

Back to Broadway

Zion Arts Centre, Hulme, Manchester

29^th-30^th October 2010

Just five weeks into a new term and Manchester University Music Society’s Back to Broadway has done it again. Sending yet another audience into the night air with hands smarting from applause, wiping tears of mirth from their cheeks, and grinning from ear to ear, this two-night-only performance is testament to the wealth of talent, enthusiasm and professionalism in this year’s students.

Brainchild of Manchester alumni Jo Ryan and Amy Coombe, Back to Broadway has sprung from humble roots to an all-singing, all-dancing, musical theatre montage. Comprising over twenty musical numbers that took the audience on a whirlwind tour around New York’s Broadway and London’s West End, this production showcased the finest of Manchester University’s budding Broadway protégés.

The whistle-stop-esque tour spun through numbers at breakneck speed; winding through Hair’s psychedelic ‘Aquarius’, Sweet Charity’s sultry ‘Big Spender’, the shrieking-ly sweet ‘Ohmigod You Guys’ from Legally Blond, and Guys and Dolls’ nautical extravaganza ‘Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat’. With a 31-strong cast and 8-piece band, the hair-raising vocal talent, choreographic accuracy and musical unanimity never failed to impress, with an almost palpable energy emanating from the stage right from the outset.  

Director and drama student Emily Day along with partner-in-crime musical director Patrick Hurley should be hailed for the musical professionalism, choreographic mastery and ambitious programme of this revue show. Devoid of a rigid adherence to well-trodden West End numbers, audiences were introduced to pieces from lesser-known musicals such as A Chorus Line, Edges, Next to Normal, and The Unauthorised Biography of Samantha Brown. The ‘off-Broadway’ spice was felt in the opening ‘Invocations and Instructions to an Audience’ from Frogs, in which audience members were advised to “respect the art,” and refrain from... making any small disturbances during the performance, as well as the farcical Facebook fare, ‘Be My Friend’ from tongue-in-cheek musical Edges.

Seemingly effortless execution of much technically demanding material proved that musical theatre can be just as serious as the most sober of all classical music, as demonstrated by Mark McCloskey and Nia Coleman’s soaring ‘Say it Somehow’ and Tonje Sæbø’s darkly amusing ‘Nothing’.  Yet, in spite of the wealth of many breathtakingly beautiful romantic duets, the inclusion of Spamalot’s ‘Song That Goes Like This’ from comedy-duo-in-the-making Celyn Thomas and Emily McDouall left not one dry eye (or seat) in the house as the formulaic soppy ballad was swiftly ripped to shreds in Monty Python’s masterful spoof.

The emotional charge of full chorus numbers, including ‘Skid Row’ from the Little Shop of Horrors and All Shook Up’s ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ sent electrifying shivers down the spines of an already extremely lively audience. On the other hand, single sex numbers proved that a healthy dose of competition never did any harm as including ‘Nothing like a Dame’, ‘Wash that man right out of my hair’, ‘Edelweiss’ and the blasphemous ‘Take Me to Heaven’ demonstrated that lads and lasses alike can create fantastically effective ensembles.

As the cast roared across the rooftops of London in ‘Step in Time’ and ‘Anything Can Happen’ from Mary Poppins in an invigoratingly energetic finale, it was hard to believe that this was not on the bright lights of Broadway itself.  

The full cast after the show in Mary Poppins chimney-sweeping attire...

PS. That's five stars, by the way...