The Greatest Show

After watching The Greatest Show, by Pelican Productions, I know that the future of musical theatre in Adelaide will be safe in the coming years.

This is their 15^th music theatre camp and judging by the number of students involved, it is extremely popular.

Unbelievably, the final result of the camp is created over 5 days. Some of the students know each other prior to the camp, some don’t. Over the very few days involved, their talents are melded and made into a show. Impressively, these students memorise the lyrics, vocal lines and dance routines over this time and present to a high standard.

Jen Frith and Kylie Green are to be congratulated for bringing this all together and giving young people a chance to gain valuable experience in musical theatre.

Of course, this does not just happen. Pelican Productions call in a retinue of tutors to help the students learn as effortlessly as possible. There are 14 coaches in all, vocal and choreographic. They work tirelessly and deserved to be named in this review.

Firstly, the vocal tutors: Ross Burford, David Gauci (head of Davine Interventionz), Michael Griffiths (world-wide cabaret performer), Rosie Hosking, Martin Cheney, Katrina Ryan and Tania Savelli. The choreographic tutors are Sarah Brideson, Justine Edge, Aidan Kane Munn, Joe Meldrum, Martine Quigley, Bec Schembri and Shenayde Wilkinson-Sarti.

Presented over 7 performances the productions showcase the talents of seemingly hundreds of students divided into 4 teams, Spotlight, Hollywood, Broadway and West End. I saw the Hollywood cast.

The evening consists of musical selections from 9 musicals – Pippin, The Greatest Showman, Gypsy, Catch Me If You Can, Fame, Madagascar, Mean Girls, Cats and Mamma Mia!

Although the standard and enthusiasm is consistent all night, everyone no doubt has their standout sections or performers. For me they were – Finn Green’s rendition of “Corner of the Sky” from Pippin, Georgia Sykes’ Baby June from Gypsy and the entire section of Catch Me If You Can, a musical not often seen in Adelaide and well handled by the cast involved.

The Fame section embodies the spirit of the musical, the highlight for me being “Out There On My Own” sung by Zara Blight.

The Madagascar medley is cuteness overload, topped by Ella Spiniello’s King Julien who had the audience laughing and cheering. “Meet the Plastics” is wonderfully sent up in the Mean Girls section.

Having performed in Cats I was keen to see how students would handle this deceptively tricky music. The audience and I enjoyed the whole section, particularly Cooper James’ Mr Mistoffelees.

Mamma Mia! has just finished its run in Adelaide so the music is still fresh in everybody’s memory, which made it an excellent choice to culminate the night. Naturally “Dancing Queen” was a crowd pleaser, as was the title song, which brought the whole company together to complete the production.

Yes, there was the occasion step missed or a lyric forgotten when I attended, but that is not important. The camaraderie developed during 5 days, the skills learnt, the repertoire developed and life lessons learnt will live in the memory of each student for the rest of their lives!

I was impressed with the enthusiasm, polish and confidence of the entire cast, and like the rest of the audience, thoroughly enjoyed The Greatest Show.

Barry Hill