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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Giving youth a stage Coventry Schools' Young Entertainer of the yearBelgrade Theatre, CoventryIs it a good
thing to run competitions in the art of entertainment for young people
still at school? Well, they are graded for just about everything else,
and even attainment in sport is measured, so attainments vary and
comparisons are made. Years ago – I dare say they still exist – I can
remember inter-school tussles for poetry and even Latin verse reading.
So why not give young entertainers a go: in fact, give them the stage? All credit, then, to the Rotary Club of Coventry,
known for supporting the city’s youth in a range of practical and
technical ways, for setting up an event, Coventry Schools’ Young
Entertainer of the year, which drew six schools at its inaugural event
in 2010 and has now raised this to 20. In fact I didn’t notice many (perhaps one or two)
absentees among secondary schools. In the 2014 jamboree, held at If some aspects looked a bit wobbly, they were
the grown ups’, not the child performers. Host/radio broadcaster Brody
Swain- obviously those in authority love him – made a bit of a tit of
himself, setting (I suggest) precisely the wrong tone, talking down and,
albeit unintentionally, patronising those taking part and in effect the
whole audience. If I were a young performer hanging on the judges’ every
word, I would want more serious criticism, not the worst kind of
unctuous piffle disguised as ‘encouragement’ that oozes out of TV
assessors and – well, not quite all of the four judges. There were errors in key parts of the
administration and stagecraft, of which more
later.
Hence the event was needlessly diminished, and the obsession with Simon
Cowell and his formats only made it worse.
It is an inspired idea
to use as a warm-up last year’s winner, better by far than any of the
cheerful, quite pleasing 2014 crop. This was Fletcher Ransberry, a 14
year old comedian-cum-magician, hilariously accident-prone yet managing
Houdini-like to extricate himself from one disaster after another (rope
tricks a specialty). This young man’s savoir-faire, his quick
thinking. his gift for engaging an audience and indeed involving them,
haplessly (even the Lord Mayor became a victim), in his act reveal an
intelligence and sheer craft way beyond his years. Is he an inveterate
watcher of old videos? He can embrace Tommy Cooper or stand-up Frankie
Howerd (‘I’ll do the jokes’), Eric Morecambe or Eric Sykes effortlessly.
But not by mere parody: his act, wondrously designed and even more
vitally enacted, is his own. In a way, at a heartwarmingly lanky 14, he’s
already a classic. With his beguiling manner, cracking voice (that will
change, and he will have to work out how to make amends by other means)
and comically nervy fidgeting, his gift for footling mock-‘impressions’,
he has a winning manner. His timing is to die for. His asides (‘It’s my
party, this script’, ‘The Health and Safety people are going to go
crazy’, ‘Sorry, miss, stop it’, ‘This isn’t the joke’; ‘Sorry, sir, I
may land on you’), and audience interplay (selecting victims and being
merciless with them) all point to a fruitful future for this
cheeky-cum-polite young lad. TV beckons, surely. But what of this year’s turnout? The judges, for
all their periodic flannel, reached I thought a thoroughly sensible
decision. As its top three it placed the Woodlands (now an Academy)
first, with a very presentable, strong and capable young rock band, The
Prospects, who are, I would think, just that. It was the era of early 60s
‘high voltage’ or high energy rock this six year old band most obviously
evoked.
They got together in their very early teens, for
they are still pretty youthful. But this was not just a display of big
noise teen testosterone: the guitar playing was sophisticated, and the
lead singer lucid as well as a good looker. They have character. The
antics, though fun, are neither here nor there: it’s their music that
counts, and their take on pre-Beatle as well as post-Stones and Kinks
delivery was attractive and impressive. The four judges observed on their comfortable
professionalism, energy, stage presence. Their six years together indeed
shows in their
marked
polish. But the most observant was solo vocalist Sandra Godley, the
judge who urged them to ‘make themselves a bit different; vary the
harmonies, for instance.’ This was the kind of constructive criticism
that judges should be delivering amid quite naturally, supportive
praise; it was welcome. My variant on that would be that I’d like to
hear them play some of their own stuff.
A King Henry VIII boy, who could easily have won
it (the judges’ deliberations were long) took second place. Richard
Fairlie is a guitar-cum-vocalist (and a member of the National Youth
Choir into the bargain) with a genuine poignancy to his singing. His
serious approach has nothing yuck about it: the counterpointing of voice
and instrument was sophisticated and attractive. The beauty of his soft,
mellow voice was notable; his words were good, the volume particularly
well judged. His modest stance conjured, as the judges rightly observed,
a real and tangible atmosphere: such that they urged him to ‘keep
going’. And so he should. The third prize (all three, incidentally, went to
groups from the first half) was mopped up by Was the elevation of these three undue? One
rather eminent punter told me he was very impressed with a quintet of
girl singers from Tile Hill Wood school, who - known as a ‘Pop Choir’ -
offered ‘The Rose’, a number made familiar by Bette Midler: arguably the
most classical of the evening’s offerings. Their tuning, especially the
two altos, was spot on, their sustaining of a slow melody was
magnificent, and the judges praised their harmonies (tuning again),
blend, posture (the triangular look with largest in the middle,
certainly appealed) and strong finish. Another around me queried why there was not a
greater range of acts overall: a violinist, say, or straight drama, or a
full bodied school choir (one instrumentalist, young Hazel Baradina from
Cardinal Wiseman – one of Coventry’s Catholic secondary schools – came
up with a diverting though not especially riveting piano and voice
offering, her take on the Animals and Eric Burden’s ‘House of the Rising
Sun’. What was nice was
that
she has some oomph (a big voice, certainly); like so many of the young
performers, she was quite unfazed about trying out her act on a large
audience: a key quality of the aspiring young performer.
Some might have plumped for Jack Gardner, a
(surprisingly) 15 year old from Ernesford Grange who showed many of the
skills of a performer in Musicals – quietly heaving with sobbing
emotion, for instance, which had some of the judges cooing exaggeratedly
about his ‘stage presence’ and ‘attention-grabbing stance’ – although
that was his strength and his weakness. He sang one of the weepier
numbers from the Madam Butterfly - based Miss Saigon. The
voice – quite a potent, striking tenor, has potential – and is actually
beautiful, and will benefit from careful further teaching and
developing. ‘You believed, so we did too’, said one judge. Well, yes, up
to a point. Another vocal effort involved quasi-comic twosome
in which an outwardly presentable but in fact nasal and screechy - hence
increasingly unimpressive - girl singer, Georgia Kelsey, was matched and
then overtaken (in Bablake’s contribution) by a runaway piano cadenza
from Aron Sood. Funny, but only mildly so. A duo from SEARING MUSICALITY What of the other bands? Lyng Hall produced an
appealing boy band foursome, Route 13, with a nicely agreeable lead
singer, arguably with potential, and competent instrumentals, but their
rather simplistic material – it felt a bit like a Monty Python or Rowan
Atkinson pop ‘spoof’ - not a match on the swaggering, James Dean-evoking
Woodlands quartet. It was Cheerful too were One Step Closer, a band from As if to prove the point, they were eclipsed, for
sheer feistiness, verve and unpredictability, near the end (see below)
by a band from Finham Park School which had that golden quality - the one
Fletcher Ransberry’s comedy has in droves – originality.
What of the larger ensembles? The legendary
Pattinsons School of Dance came up with a sequence which, if it lacked
something in invention, was as one might expect handsomely
choreographed, and particularly skilled at highlighting individuals
within the group. The judges admired the team effort and the
preparedness: everyone patently knew what to do. They also thought the
singing ‘lovely’. Well, it was OK. President Kennedy’s all-ages dance fusion was
much cleverer in its choreography, and some visual detail (a line whose
members peel off one by one) excelled. But despite useful touches and a
spirited young Sikh drummer in the band, it never quite hit the
‘memorable’ category. More promising than either was I would have been tempted to shower consolation
awards on six girls from Foxford, whose dance steps and gestures seemed
wholly original, and teasing, and who performed with something like the
slick awareness of a Michael Jackson. They used the space up fully,
constantly surprising us, starting an idea then whipping away from it
midstream, and with good enough coordination to put them in the top
bracket. But soon afterwards came Finham Park, with a quirky band act
that could easily have battled to the top too, The ensemble is now year
9, they started with a rather delicious shambolic look, mainly thanks to
their lead singer Charlie Fellow, who you might think was bored with the
whole gig, but who leaps into action and proves to be a winner. Grace Academy wound up, and their teasing acted
sequence – a kind of witty sketch, at least showed what those prepared
to be original could do. But each aspect of their show was ropy – dance,
acting, whatever; they seemed later on not to be confident enough in
what they were doing, even though they actually started rather well.
One enjoyed them for their nerve and cheek; boys and girls both entered
successfully into the spirit. There was so much good about this evening, and at
least the overall concept, that it seemed fairer to leave complaints
till the end. I’ve mentioned my dislike of the down-market hosting, and
what looked like an ill-prepared presentation on his part – the precise
reverse of those he was supposed to be introducing. The judges got an
awful lot right, even if their laudable desire that ‘all should feel
good’ – perhaps I am equally at fault here - led to some TV-quality
claptrap. Much more important was the appalling standard of
the sound system. What on earth did a location like the The programme listings were somewhat random.
Clearly they relied on information submitted, but a format is needed so
that the precise song(s) tendered are listed, the name of the group, and
other basic information. Much of this information could be prised out,
but the ‘let it all hang out’ approach is poor and, I suggest, not up to
Rotary standards. There was a serious omission in the various
credits at the end, issued by Lord Mayor, Round Table and so on. Someone
should have praised the teachers who prepared all this work. It was
doubtless a mistake that they were omitted – these things happen – but
our ubiquitous compère might have earned himself a few brownie points by
spotting this and remembering Roderic Dunnett |
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