The Sky’s The Limit

I have always loved the sound of piano and voice and there was no shortage of it in this show by 70 of the Musical Theatre students from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. Performed in the QPAC Concert Hall, reconfigured in concert mode, i.e. the audience sitting behind the stage and looking out at the auditorium, and everyone social distanced, it was a surprisingly intimate concert of show songs both old and new.

So many great performances and so many highlights.

First to register on the thunderous applause meter was Lauren Beatson and Paul Roos on Christine and Raoul’s glorious duet from The Phantom of the Opera, ‘All I Ask of You’. Beautifully sung it set the tone for what was to follow.

Campbell Lennox, Jasper Filshie and Thomas Currie did a cheeky and wonderful knees-up with the showstopper from Half a Sixpence, ‘Flash, Bang, Wallop’, complete with heel clicks, Liam Chapman was a nerdy Seymour opposite Alicia Miller’s big, belty Audrey in ‘Suddenly Seymour’ from Little Shop of Horrors, whilst Gabriella Boumford and Nina Lippmann successfully added heart to Glinda and Elphaba’s iconic duet ‘For Good’ from Wicked.

One of the best performances was Liam J. Kirkpatrick’s rafter-raising treatment of Quasimodo’s ‘Out There’ from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz’s underrated score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul were represented by Dear Evan Hansen’s emotional duet ‘Only Us’, tenderly performed by Kaitlin Nihill and Jasper Filshie, whilst the nearest thing the show offered to a routine was Jake Tolich, Daniel Kirby and Lindsay Cooper with their sharp and snappy title song from Guys and Dolls.

There was plenty of diva belting on offer - from Jade Delmiguez and Danielle Remulta’s ‘When You Believe’ (The Prince of Egypt), to Grace Whitney and Jahla Black’s ‘I Know Him So Well’ (Chess).

But the thrills and goose bumps were provided by the big ensemble numbers with the entire 70 voices filling the auditorium. Opening with the harmonically beautiful, ‘The New World’ from Songs of a New World, then midway into the show giving us the stirring ‘One More Day’ from Les Misérables (repeated as an encore), and closing with a stunning and throat-catching partly a cappella version of Peter Allen’s beloved anthem ‘I Still Call Australia Home’, it was musical theatre as we love to hear it.

Paul Sabey’s accompaniment on the grand piano was so clever that he made it sound like a full orchestra, and the audience responded with well-deserved foot-stamping and applause.

It was great to be back home in a real theatre!

Peter Pinne   

Images from top - Finale of The Sky's The Limit, then group shots of 3rd, 2nd and 1st year Bachelor of Musical Theatre Students.