Top Telegraph review

David Peasgood's review of last night's performance is in the Grimsby Evening Telegraph tonight. We could hardly have asked for a better write-up.

He starts by saying that

"If you only go and see one show in the next 12 months, make it this one"

calling it

"an absolute tour de force...with enough panache to grace a metropolitan stage....visually stunning"

The staging, lighting, choreography and music are "examplary", "invigorating" and "brilliant" and the band "complement the songs to perfection".

"The cast...has quality and talent in abundance. Peter Finnegan as Jesus has a lovely vocal quality that draws great empathy to his character. James Clark as Simon, Tom Weston as Peter and David Wrightham as Pilate are yet more charismatic stars"

I was pleasantly surprised to read that, for him

"the most impressive performances came from Caroline Maasdam-Gooch and Richard Barley. Richard has a wonderfull strong vocals, whilst his impressive and emotive acting culminated in a death scene that left the audience speechless with awe"

:o) how kind :0)

His favourite numbers were "Heaven...", "I Don't Know...", "Gethsemane", "The Last Supper" and "Herod's Song" and Steve was a "stylish Herod" which "went down a scream".

The only downer, and I think there are lots of reasons for this, was this bit

"My sole criticism was the finale rendition of Superstar, which I found incongruous with the traditional interpretation of the story."

Now, we obviously can't change the show, so Superstar has to be there. It is supposed to be Judas taunting Jesus in a vision from the future, asking him the awkward questions about whether it was all worth it. There are maybe a few things we could have done differently to get this over to the audience better...I have always thought that Jesus should be on stage for the number, so I can taunt him...If the program had a line of explaination about each scene, this might have helped...and maybe the costumes put people off a bit. I don't know, but there's nothing to be done about it now. Perhaps a different audience will get into the song a bit more and it will have the desired effect. A very minor blot on an otherwise superb review.

The crucifixion, he says

"was a phenomenal moment of poignancy that will stay in the mind of everyone attending for many years."

So true.

He rounded off by suggesting that we will win

"every award going in the field of amateur musical theatre and justifiably so.
Everyone involved raised personal standards to levels I have not previously seen in a decade enjoying this society and this was rich, vibrant, exciting and stimulating theatre at it's best, with every cast member a superstar."

I couldn't have put it better myself!